Early appearances in
Gunsmoke (1962) Hartley began her career as a 13-year-old in the
White Barn Theatre in
Norwalk, Connecticut. In her teens as a stage actress, she was coached and mentored by
Eva Le Gallienne. She graduated in 1957 from
Staples High School in
Westport, Connecticut, where she was an active member of the school's theater group, Staples Players. While a student at Staples, she boldly telephoned screenwriter
Rod Serling to ask him to speak in her class. Serling answered the call himself, chose to visit and speak in her classroom, and years later remembering their previous interaction, cast Hartley in an episode ("
The Long Morrow") of
The Twilight Zone. Hartley also worked at the
American Shakespeare Festival. Her film career began with an uncredited cameo appearance in
From Hell to Texas (1958), a Western with
Dennis Hopper. In the early 1960s, she moved to Los Angeles and joined the UCLA Theater Group. Hartley's first credited film appearance was alongside
Randolph Scott and
Joel McCrea in the 1962
Sam Peckinpah Western
Ride the High Country; the role earned her a
BAFTA award nomination. She continued to appear in film during the 1960s, including the lead role in the adventure
Drums of Africa (1963), and prominent supporting roles in
Alfred Hitchcock's psychological thriller
Marnie (1964) — alongside
Tippi Hedren and
Sean Connery — and the
John Sturges drama
Marooned (1969). Hartley also guest-starred in numerous TV series during the decade, with appearances in
Gunsmoke (five times including the title character in "Cotter's Girl" in 1962);
The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters;
Death Valley Days;
Judd, for the Defense;
Bonanza; and
Star Trek (as Zarabeth, Spock's love interest in S3 E23 "
All Our Yesterdays", which aired on March 13, 1969) among others. In 1965, she had a significant role as Dr.
Claire Morton in 32 episodes of
Peyton Place.
1970s and 1980s ,
Rolland Smith and Hartley on the CBS "Morning Program" Hartley continued to perform in film and TV during the 1970s, including two Westerns alongside
Lee Van Cleef,
Barquero (1970) and
The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972); and TV series including
The Love Boat;
The Streets of San Francisco;
Emergency!;
McCloud;
Little House on the Prairie;
Love, American Style;
Police Woman; Star Trek and
Columbo (1974's
Publish or Perish co-starring
Jack Cassidy and 1977's
Try and Catch Me with
Ruth Gordon). Hartley portrays similar characters as a publisher's assistant in both episodes. In 1977, Hartley appeared in the TV movie
The Last Hurrah, a
political drama based on the
Edwin O'Connor novel of the same name; and earned her first
Emmy Award nomination. Her role as psychologist Dr. Carolyn Fields in "Married", a 1978 episode of the TV series
The Incredible Hulk in which she marries
Bill Bixby's character, the alter ego of the
Hulk, won Hartley the
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. She was nominated for the same award for her performance in an episode of
The Rockford Files the following year. In 1983, Hartley reunited with Bixby in the sitcom
Goodnight, Beantown, which ran for two seasons and brought her another Emmy Award nomination. (She worked with Bixby again in the 1992 TV movie
A Diagnosis of Murder, the first of three TV movies that launched the series
Diagnosis: Murder). In 1987, she co-hosted CBS's
The Morning Program weekday morning news show alongside
Rolland Smith, for ten months.
Later career In the 1990s, Hartley toured with
Elliott Gould and Doug Wert in the revival of the mystery play
Deathtrap. Numerous roles in TV movies and guest appearances in TV series during the 1990s and 2000s followed, including
Murder, She Wrote (1992),
Courthouse (1995),
Nash Bridges (2000), and
NCIS (2005). She had recurring roles as Sister Mary Daniel in the soap opera
One Life to Live (1999–2001; 10 episodes), and as Lorna Scarry in six episodes of
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2003–2011). From 1995 to 2015, she hosted the long-running television documentary series
Wild About Animals, an educational program. In 2006, Hartley starred in her own one-woman show, ''If You Get to Bethlehem, You've Gone Too Far'', which ran in Los Angeles. She returned to the stage in 2014 as
Eleanor of Aquitaine (with
Ian Buchanan as Henry) in the Colony Theater Company production of
James Goldman's
The Lion in Winter. In January 2018, Hartley began a recurring role on the
Fox first-responder drama
9-1-1 as Patricia Clark, the
Alzheimer's-afflicted mother of dispatcher Abby Clark (
Connie Britton).
Advertising In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Hartley appeared with
James Garner in a popular series of
television commercials advertising
Polaroid cameras. The two actors had such natural on-screen chemistry that many viewers erroneously believed that they were married in real life. Hartley's 1990 biography,
Breaking the Silence, indicates that she began to wear a T-shirt printed with the phrase "I am not Mrs. James Garner." (Hartley went as far to have a shirt made for her infant son, reading "I am not James Garner's Child" and even one for her then-husband: "I am not James Garner!" James Garner's actual wife then jokingly had a T-shirt printed with "I am Mrs. James Garner.") Hartley guest-starred in an episode of Garner's television series
The Rockford Files in 1979. The script required the two to kiss at one point and unbeknownst to them, a
paparazzo was photographing the scene from a distance. The photos were run in a
tabloid trying to provoke a scandal. An article that ran in
TV Guide was titled: "That woman is
not James Garner's wife!" Between 2001 and 2006, Hartley endorsed the
See Clearly Method, a commercial
eye exercise program, whose sales were halted by an Iowa court after a finding of fraudulent business practices and advertising. ==Honors==