Although best known for her more recent roles in Arrested Development and Archer, Jessica Walter appeared in plenty of other great movies and television shows during her sixty years as an actress. She also had a fairly successful stage career and picked up several prestigious awards throughout her life.
What made Walter stand out so much was her exceptional talent for character work. The energy and attitude that she so often brought to her roles was wonderfully unique and really did make her difficult to ignore. Though she may no longer be with us, her memory and legacy still live on through her impressive body of work.
10 Laura (Lilith)
Walter's first appearance on the silver screen came in the 1964 drama Lilith. She starred alongside acting greats like Warren Beatty, Peter Fonda and a young Gene Hackman; the latter of whom was also making his first credited movie appearance.
Her character, Laura, didn't get as much screen time as Walter may have liked, although she still did a solid enough job whenever called upon. Perhaps more importantly though, the performance marked the first of many in an acting career that would go on to span seven different decades.
9 Claudia Bradford (Three's A Crowd)
Although Walter found moderate success both on screen and on stage throughout the sixties and seventies, her first recurring television role came in the eighties sitcom, Three's a Crowd. She played Claudia Bradford in eight episodes of the show's solitary season and could typically be found arguing with her character's ex-husband, James.
Her time on the show may have been relatively short when compared to some of her later roles, but Claudia was still involved in some great storylines during that time. The most memorable of these is perhaps the episode in which James tries to set her up with one of his rich friends to avoid paying alimony. Needless to say, his plan backfires spectacularly.
8 Lady Diabolyn (Wildfire)
Walter's next recurring role came just a few years later in the Hanna-Barbera animated series, Wildfire. Although perhaps not quite as memorable as some of the studio's other works, it still had some exciting moments throughout its 13 episode run.
Walter played an evil witch known as Lady Diabolyn who served as the show's primary antagonist. The actress did a fantastic job of bringing the character to life with a series of performances full of both menace and gravitas. Ultimately, Diabolyn was never able to claim the throne that she so desperately desired, but she did prove to be popular with the show's young audience.
7 Pat Stoddard (Grand Prix)
Having had fairly little to do in her movie debut, Walter found herself a lot busier when she returned to the silver screen just a few years later. She played Pat Stoddard in the sports drama Grand Prix, which would go on to become one of the ten highest-grossing movies of 1966.
As well as being commercially successful, the movie proved to be a big hit with critics too. It picked up several Academy Awards for its sound and editing and received plenty of positive reviews as well. Walter even earned herself a Golden Globe nomination for New Star of the Year, but was pipped at the post by Swedish actress Camilla Sparv.
6 Morgan Le Fay (Dr. Strange)
Before becoming the blockbuster behemoths that they are today, superhero movies were often fairly low key affairs. Prior to the year 2000, many were made on shoestring budgets and were produced as television movies rather than full theatrical releases. One such example of this is 1978's Dr. Strange.
In it, Walter portrayed the supervillain Morgan le Fay, who was loosely based on the Arthurian legend of the same name. Unfortunately, the movie didn't perform particularly well in the Nielsen ratings and was also panned by critics, although Walter and her costars were still praised for their "committed" performances.
5 Fran Sinclair (Dinosaurs)
Those who grew up in the nineties will likely recognize Walter as the voice of Fran in ABC's much loved family sitcom, Dinosaurs. Produced by the great Jim Henson and starring a family of anthropomorphic dinosaurs, Walter made for a memorable mother and appeared in each of the show's 65 episodes.
Despite being a family show, Dinosaurs also featured its fair share of serious content, covering such issues as women's rights, body image and racism during its three and a half years on the air. It won numerous awards too and currently holds an approval rating of 96% on Rotten Tomatoes; making it one of Walter's most critically acclaimed shows.
4 Amy Prentiss (Amy Prentiss)
Walter had some excellent roles in the earlier stages of her career, but none more so than Amy Prentiss; the main character of the NBC mini-series of the same name. The show served as a spinoff of Ironside and consisted of three two hour episodes centered around the first female Chief of Detectives at the SFPD.
As a single mother, Prentiss had a hard time balancing her personal life with the pressures of her career and this was not helped by the prejudice she often faced at work due to her age, gender and senior role in the department. Walter did a wonderful job of capturing these struggles and was rewarded with an Emmy for her standout performances.
3 Evelyn Draper (Play Misty For Me)
The pinnacle of Walter's movie career arguably came in 1971 when she was cast for the role of Evelyn Draper in Clint Eastwood's directorial debut, Play Misty For Me. She served as the movie's female lead and delivered a performance that was both memorable and captivating in near equal measures.
Critics responded well to her on screen chemistry with Eastwood, who also starred in the movie as well as directing it. It was Walter who received the bulk of the acclaim, however, with the actress nominated for the 1972 Golden Globe award for Best Actress in a drama. As with her earlier Golden Globe nomination though, she just missed out; this time to two-time Oscar winner Jane Fonda.
2 Malory Archer (Archer)
Towards the latter stages of her career, Walter picked up plenty of memorable roles in which she played a mother. Unlike her earlier performances as Fran in Dinosaurs, however, she opted to go with a very different approach when providing the voice of Malory in Archer.
The character's sharp tongue and shady actions provided plenty of memorable moments, as too did her excellent back and forth with the titular character. Despite the show's quality tailing off a little in later seasons, Walter still gave it her all in every episode and continued to delight viewers with her verbal beat-downs and interesting love life right up to the final curtain call.
1 Lucille Bluth (Arrested Development)
There are quite a few parallels between Malory Archer and Arrested Development's Lucille Bluth. Both place unnecessary pressure on their children and typically do so with a drink in their hand. The thing that sets Lucille apart though is that viewers got to enjoy Walter's excellent on-screen presence rather than just listen to her witty retorts.
With her unhealthy relationship with Buster and her bizarre love triangle with George and Oscar, Lucille was one of the show's most consistent characters. The bluntness with which Walter delivered her lines was perfect for the role and a big part of what made the character work as well as it did.