Joanne Linville made her mark on television from the 1950s-1980s, appearing in such respected anthology series asStudio One (1948),Kraft Television Theatre (1947) andAlfred Hitchcock Presents (1955), among others. While her film work consisted mainly of smaller character roles and she never had regular roles on television, she guest-starred on numerous series over her career, often in Westerns but, especially in the 1970s, in a variety of drama and detective series.Star Trek (1966) fans will remember her in the episode "The Enterprise Incident", in which she played a Romulan commander--the first female Romulan ever portrayed on the series--who goes up against Captain James T. Kirk and is romanced by Mr. Spock.

The ex-wife of directorMark Rydell, she has two children by that marriage who are also actors,Amy Rydell andChristopher Rydell. She was a master teacher atStella Adler's Academy and later started her own acting school.