Joanna Lee

• Name — Joanna Lee • Born — 7 April 1931 • Birthplace — Newark, New Jersey, U.S. • Died — 24 October 2003 • Place of death — Santa Monica, California, U.S. • Awards — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series • Known for — * The Flintstones • Room 222 • Gilligan's Island • The Waltons • Occupation — * Television director • screenwriter • actress • executive producer • Years Active — 1956–1990

The Newark, New Jersey-born actress's career was only in small roles, 10 in all, including seven TV series and three feature films, all between 1956 and 1961. The latter included an uncredited appearance in a lesser-known Frank Sinatra film, The Joker Is Wild (1957), plus two low-budget science fiction films. Those two were The Brain Eaters (1958) and a film that in later years would come to be regarded as the quintessential 'so-bad-it's-good' cult classic, Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959), in which Lee portrays "Tanna" the space girl. A serious car accident in 1961 necessitated a career change. By 1962, Lee had landed writing assignments for My Three Sons and The Flintstones. She wrote more than 20 episodes of The Flintstones and is widely credited with creating The Great Gazoo. She wrote an episode of Gilligan's Island (1964–67), entitled "Beauty Is as Beauty Does", which aired on September 23, 1965. Lee also wrote two episodes for the final season of the series, each of which based the plot line on one of the castaways meeting their double. Also in this period (September 1962) she appeared as a contestant on the CBS television program What's My Line, describing her work at that point as being a TV comedy writer. In her June 11, 1959 appearance on You Bet Your Life, Joanna Lee describes her career and also wins $3,000 in prize money. Lee’s writing career stretched from 1962 until 1990, including many dozens of comedic and dramatic television series episodes before writing, producing, and directing various TV movies and "Afterschool Specials." In 1971 she wrote two scripts for the television show, Room 222. In 1974, Lee won an Emmy Award for Best Writing in Drama, for a 1973 Thanksgiving episode of The Waltons. The same year, she formed her own production company, which, in 1975, produced the documentary Babe (also written by Lee), about athlete Babe Zaharias's career. The film was nominated for an Emmy for "Outstanding Writing in a Special Program - Drama or Comedy - Original Teleplay," and won the Golden Globe for "Best Motion Picture Made for Television." Lee wrote the novel and teleplay Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night. In 1988, she won the Humanitas Prize for The Kid Who Wouldn't Quit: The Brad Silverman Story.

Her son, Craig Lee, then a music director at L. A. Weekly, died of AIDS in 1992. Another son, Christopher Ciampa, appeared in several of her films. Her autobiography, A Difficult Woman in Hollywood, was published in 1999. Lee died from bone cancer on October 24, 2003, in Santa Monica, at the age of 72.

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1956 — The Joseph Cotten Show aka On Trial — Clare — Episode: "Twice in Peril" • 1957 — The 20th Century Fox Hour — Salesgirl — Episode: "The Marriage Broker" • 1958 — Leave It to Beaver — Classified ad lady at Courier Sun — Episode: "Beaver and Poncho" • How to Marry a Millionaire — Secretary — Episode: "Loco Vs Wall Street" • 1959 — The Donna Reed Show — Connie — Episode: "Donna Plays Cupid" • Death Valley Days — Laura — Episode: "Pioneer Circus" • 1960 — Flora Dodd — Episode: "The General Who Disappeared" • Tales of Wells Fargo — Antoinette — Episode: "Kid Brother" • Happy — Gwen Kimball — Episode: "Chris' Night Out" • Manhunt — Jane — Episode: "The Payoff Man' • 1961 — Mona Thompson — Episode: "The Dead Antelope/Gazelle" • Miami Undercover — Christine — Episode: "Wrong Pigeon"

Joanna Lee is recorded as actress, screenwriter, television producer and film director.