A Lesson from My Movie-Star Sister

Filmmakers, take note

Richard Walter
Moving Pictures

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Jessica Walter

To friends and family she was Jessie but the public knew her as Jessica.

Her acting career spanned sixty years.

Were we close? Very much so. I miss her every day.

Jessie was no mere movie star nor even a legend; as Lucille Bluth on the incomparable Arrested Development she became and remains an icon, a meme.

I remember seeing a guest-shot performance she gave on an ancient series Marcus Welby, M.D., and the next morning running into her at the unemployment office in Hollywood. She thanked me for complimenting her performance on …Welby, and then said, sighing, “Last night I guest-starred on a hit network TV show and here I am, waiting in line at Unemployment. People think I live in a palazzo in the hills and drive a Mercedes and have a live-in housekeeper.”

“But you do live in a palazzo in the hills, and drive a Mercedes, and have a live-in housekeeper’” I said.

During its first incarnation, on Fox broadcast TV, when Arrested Development first captured the attention of viewers, I was still working my side hustle, teaching writing at a film school. Students would tiptoe around me, trembling in awe, keeping their distance as one would from, say, the Buddha, whispering excitedly, “That’s Lucille…

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Richard Walter
Moving Pictures

Screenwriter, bestselling author, and 40 years leadership @ UCLA’s prestigious screenwriting program. Get 40 lessons from 40 years: richardwalter.com/newsletter