page_title: Joan Hotchkis
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Joan Hotchkis / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo from the television program The Odd Couple. From left: Joan Hotchkis (Oscar's girlfriend, Nancy), Fred Beir (Nancy's brother, Ray), Jack Klugman (Oscar Madison), Janis Hansen (Felix's ex-wife, Gloria). Trouble brews when Oscar introduces Gloria to Nancy and her brother; Gloria starts dating Ray.
context_page_description: Joan Hotchkis is an American stage, screen and television actress, writer and performance artist. A lifetime member of the Actors Studio and the Dramatists Guild, Hotchkis is best known for playing Dr. Nancy Cunningham for several seasons on "The Odd Couple," for co-writing with Eric Morris the seminal acting manual "No Acting Please", which is still used in colleges and conservatories, and for her groundbreaking performance art works in the 1990s.
context_section_description: From the 1950s through the 1990s, Hotchkis played many roles in television, film and theater (summer stock and Broadway). She was featured in Broadway productions of "It's a Bird It's a Plane It's Superman" (Philadelphia previews), "Advise and Consent," and "Write Me A Murder" before playing Myra on soap opera "The Secret Storm" for several years in the early 60s. In 1967, she moved back to Los Angeles and worked steadily in television through the 1970s. Most notably, Hotchkis played Dr. Nancy Cunningham, sometime girlfriend of Oscar Madison on the television version of The Odd Couple; Ellen in the Emmy-winning series My World and Welcome to It; and co-starred on "L.A.T.E.R." (1980). 
  Hotchkis also made many guest appearances on TV shows such as Bewitched, St. Elsewhere, Lou Grant, Charlie's Angels, Mannix, Marcus Welby, Barnaby Jones and more. On the big screen, she co-starred as Mama Hartley in the feature film "Ode to Billy Joe" (1976). 
  Hotchkis began writing original material in the 70s, beginning with a one-woman play called "Legacy," depicting an upper class housewife having a mental and emotional breakdown. Eric Morris directed the play on stage; director Karen Arthur saw the play and approached Hotchkis proposing to make a film version, with Arthur as director and Hotchkis as writer, producer and star. The resulting film, "Legacy" (1975), won Best Newcomer at the Tehran Film Festival. 
  In the early 1980s, Hotchkis returned to the stage, performing for several years in regional theaters such as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Milwaukee Repertory Theater before returning home to start in "The Glass Menagerie" at Los Angeles Theater Center and do the occasional television role.
caption: Hotchkis (far left), in a scene from The Odd Couple. Also pictured (left to right): Fred Beir as Nancy's brother, Ray, Jack Klugman as Oscar Madison, and Janis Hansen (as Gloria, Felix's ex-wife).
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