Bio: Mariette Hartley was born Mary Loretta, a name she dislikes, in Weston, Connecticut. She was raised in accordance with the principles espoused by her behavioral psychologist grandfather, John B. Watson, who believed that children should never be held or cuddled. She says that the lack of warmth at home is what drove her to the theatre. She studied with John Houseman at the Repertory Stratford and with Eva Le Gallienne at Lucille Lortel's White Barn Theatre. It took her six years to get her first movie, Ride the High Country (1962) with Joel McCrea. She then made a series of TV appearances and sitcoms. She is most known, however, for her series of Polaroid commercials with James Garner. Mariette's father committed suicide with a self-inflicted gunshot in 1962. Her family kept it a secret for 25 years, but she eventually revealed the incident. This brought her considerable acclaim for speaking out about her devastation. She co-founded a suicide prevention foundation based on her own past situation. She continues to work in the theatre and, in 2000, was hosting the syndicated Wild About Animals (1995). Her children, Justine E. Boyriven (b. 1978) is an actress and singer, and Sean Boyriven (b. 1975) is a film-school graduate.
Tivia: She was a founder and longtime national spokesperson for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, which she continues to be involved with as an honorary member of the board of directors (through 2013), and works assertively with many organizations that deal with mental illness. Her father, uncle and cousin all committed suicide.She was not allowed to show her belly button in the third season episode All Our Yesterdays (1969) due to censors. But Gene Roddenberry got even: he had her show TWO belly buttons in the television movie Genesis II (1973).She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television at 7020 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on June 11, 1987.Her celebrity got a significant boost from a notable, much praised, and much parodied series of television commercials and print ads for Polaroid cameras and film, with James Garner that ran from 1977-1984. She and Garner were so naturally convincing as a couple that she had a variety of t-shirts made, proclaiming "I am not James Garner's wife!"; "I am not James Garner" (for her then-husband) and "I am not James Garner's son!" (for her young son). In response, James Garner's real-life wife had a shirt made that declared "I am James Garner's wife!" More than 250 commercials were produced.In 2006, she performed her one-woman show "If You Get to Bethlehem, You've Gone Too Far", which is based on her bestselling biography "Breaking the Silence" (1990). Mariette enacts eleven characters from her memories as a child living in a home beset by acute depression and alcoholism.Attended and graduated from Staples High School in Westport, Connecticut (1957), where she was the head of the school's drama department.Has starred in three different television productions with the late Bill Bixby: The Incredible Hulk (1977) (for which she won an Emmy Award), Diagnosis Murder: Diagnosis of Murder (1992), and the sitcom Goodnight, Beantown (1983).She won an Emmy Award for her role in the memorable television movie Married (1978), which co-starred the late Bill Bixby. Hartley and Bixby worked together on the pilot episode for Diagnosis Murder (1993) and the sitcom Goodnight, Beantown (1983). She was also the first actress to win an Emmy Award for a sci-fi television series.In her teens, she was coached and mentored by legendary acting teacher (and later Oscar nominee) Eva Le Gallienne.Is the grandniece of FDR's famous Secretary of the Interior, Harold L. Ickes.Former actress-turned-nun Dolores Hart is Mariette's spiritual advisor, and by happenstance gave Mariette the inspired title of her one-woman show "If You Get to Bethlehem, You've Gone Too Far". It seems those are the driving directions Sister Dolores gives when describing how to get to her convent in Woodbury, Connecticut.Has publicly discussed her personal experience with bipolar disorder.Received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theatre from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) (1965).Has discussed her father's suicide at a suicide and violence prevention forum.Is the granddaughter of trailblazing psychologist John Broadus Watson.Cousin of Bill Clinton adviser and White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Harold Ickes.(2001-2006) She was spokesperson (with her son) for the See Clearly Method (a VHS/DVD tutorial by Vision Improvement Technologies purported to naturally correct impaired vision through an eye exercise program, for which sales were ultimately halted by a court, finding that this had been marketed dishonestly).Received an honorary degree (Doctor of Fine Arts) from Rider College (now Rider University) in Lawrenceville, New Jersey (1993).Had done a Polaroid "One Step" television commercial with James Garner in the 1970s.