Joanna Cassidy

Joanna Cassidy
Name	Joanna Virginia Caskey-Cassidy
Gender	Female
Birthdate	August 2, 1945
Birth Hometown	Haddonfield, New Jersey
Character	Joan Hunt

Joanna Cassidy (born August 2, 1945) is an American film and television actress. She played Megan Hunt's mother Joan Hunt on the ABC series Body of Proof.

Life and career

Cassidy was born Joanna Virginia Caskey in Haddonfield, New Jersey, the daughter of Virginia and Joe Caskey. She attended Haddonfield Memorial High School, where she described herself as being "a rowdy kid".

At an early age, Cassidy was involved in painting and sculpture and went on to major in art at Syracuse University in New York. During her time there, she married Kennard C. Kobrin in 1964, a doctor in residency, and found work as a fashion model. The couple moved to San Francisco, where her husband set up a psychiatric practice while Cassidy continued modeling. In 1968, she landed a bit part in Bullitt. Following her divorce in 1974, Cassidy decided to move to Los Angeles in a bid for an acting career. The circumstances under which she changed her family name from "Caskey" to "Cassidy" for professional reasons are not known.

Cassidy started her acting career appearing in a 1973 Smokey the Bear public service announcement (PSA), and television series such as Mission: Impossible, Starsky & Hutch, and Taxi. She had a small role in the 1976 film Stay Hungry, an offbeat film about bodybuilding that featured a young Arnold Schwarzenegger. She co-starred in the 1978 film Our Winning Season. Her first regular role was as sheriff's pilot Morgan Wainwright in the 1979 action-adventure series 240-Robert, though the series only lasted for two abbreviated seasons. Afterwards, Cassidy continued to appear in guest roles in series such as Dallas, Falcon Crest, as well as a regular role in the short-lived 1983 sitcom Buffalo Bill (for which she earned a Golden Globe Award). Joanna also starred in the short-lived 1985 TV series Code Name: Foxfire.

In 1982, Cassidy had her first major feature film role as the replicant Zhora in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. The following year, she co-starred in Under Fire with Gene Hackman and Nick Nolte] She continued to appear in both films and television, and co-starred in the television miniseries Hollywood Wives (1985), The Fourth Protocol (1987), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), The Package (1989), Steel Magnolias (1989), Where the Heart Is (1990), and Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (1991). In 1993, she co-starred with Dudley Moore in the sitcom Dudley, but the series only lasted for six episodes. She also appeared opposite James Garner, playing his ex-wife, in the 1994 television movie The Rockford Files: I Still Love L.A. Her other screen credits from this era include Barbarians at the Gate (1993), the 1993 miniseries adaptation of Stephen King's The Tommyknockers, and Wes Craven's Vampire in Brooklyn (1995). Cassidy also provided the voice of Inspector Maggie Sawyer in the WB's series Superman: The Animated Series, and had recurring guest roles on television shows such as L.A. Law, Melrose Place, Diagnosis: Murder and The District.

Since 2000, Cassidy has appeared in the 2001 film Ghosts of Mars directed by John Carpenter, and had a recurring role as Margaret Chenowith on the HBO drama series Six Feet Under for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award. In 2004, she also guest-starred in two episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise as T'Les (the Vulcan mother of Enterprise crewmember T'Pol) and she also had a recurring role as Beverly Bridge on the series Boston Legal in 2006. She also voiced the villainess, Hecubah, in the computer game Nox (2000) as well as once again voicing the character of Maggie Sawyer in the 2002 video game Superman: Shadow of Apokolips.

In the spring of 2007, Cassidy donned Zhora's costume once more, 25 years after the release of Blade Runner, in order to recreate a climactic scene from the film for the fall 2007 Final Cut release of the film. In the original 1982 release, a stunt performer played out Zhora's death scene, with the physical differences between the performer and Cassidy very evident (including the stuntwoman wearing a different wig). For the Final Cut, Cassidy's head was digitally transposed onto footage of the stunt performer, making the death scene fit continuity. According to the DVD featurette, All Our Variant Futures, it was Cassidy herself who suggested this be done; she is captured on video making the suggestion during filming of a retrospective interview related to Blade Runner.

In the second season of the NBC series Heroes, she is seen in a photo of the twelve senior members of the show's mysterious company. Beyond appearances in photographs, the actress first appeared as Victoria Pratt in the tenth episode of season two, "Truth & Consequences", during which her character was killed off.

In 2008-2009, Cassidy appeared in episodes of Ghost Whisperer, Desperate Housewives, Law & Order: UK, and was also seen in the recurring guest role of Amanda Hawthorne, the mother-in-law of Jada Pinkett Smith's eponymous character in the medical drama HawthoRNe.

In 2011, Cassidy began to appear in a recurring role on the ABC hit series Body of Proof as Judge Joan Hunt, the mother of Megan Hunt, Dana Delany's character in the show.