Only three weeks after giving a death scene performance as Karen McKluskey in the series finale of “Desperate Housewives”, Emmy Award winning actress Kathryn Joosten died at the age of 72 as a result of lung cancer on June 1. Joosten died at her home in Westlake Village surrounded by her family.
Since her debut role as Mrs. Clark on “Grandview U.S.A.” in 1984; Joosten has gone on to portray over 100 roles including an episode of “Family Matters”, an episode of “Picket Fences”, “Chicago Hope”, “3rd Rock from the Sun”, “ER”, two episodes of “Roseanne”, “Murphy Brown”, “Seinfeld”, “Frasier”, “NYPD Blue”, “The Nanny”, “Phoenix”, “Home Improvement”, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, “Code Blue”, “Becker”, “Ally McBeal”, seven episodes of “Dharma and Greg”, “Spin City”, “The X Files”, and 30 episodes of “The West Wing” where she played President Bartlett’s personal secretary Mrs. Landingham until the character was killed in an automobile accident.
She went on to play Ida Warren in five episodes of “General Hospital”, “Judging Amy”, “The Drew Carey Show”, “Charmed”, “The King of Queens”, “Curb Your Enthusiasm”, “Will & Grace”, a neighbour in “Breaking Dawn”, Gilmore Girls”, eight episodes of “Joan of Arcadia”, “Grey’s Anatomy”, “Malcolm in the Middle”, “The Closer”, two episodes of “My Name is Earl”, two episodes of “Monk”, three episodes of “Scrubs”, Aunt Jackie in “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel”, “The Cleveland Show”, “The Mentalist”, “Harry’s Law”, and 89 episodes of “Desperate Housewives”.
She was born on December 20,1939 in Eustis, Florida. Eustis is located on Lake Eustis between Sanford and Leesburg in central Florida. Joosten’s own mother died of cancer in 1963. It was then that Joosten decided to follow her dreams and entered the world of acting at age 42. Along with her character roles, Joosten also appeared in a number of television commercials. Joosten is a two time Emmy Award winner. Kathryn Joosten is survived by her two sons Jonathan and Timothy.
