Bess Armstrong

Bess Armstrong is an American actress who began performing Off-Off Broadway in 1975 in Harmony House. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, she earned a BA from Brown University. Her television debut came in 1977 as Julia Peters in On Our Own, a CBS sitcom, and TV movies followed, including Getting Married and How to Pick Up Girls! in 1978. On stage, she co-starred with Richard Thomas in a 1981 Seattle staging of Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park that HBO recorded. On screen she appeared in The Four Seasons (1981), then High Road to China (1983) opposite Tom Selleck, and Nothing in Common (1986) with Tom Hanks and Jackie Gleason; she also acted in Jaws 3-D (1983). She starred as Patty Chase on the ABC drama My So-Called Life and later appeared in Frasier, Boston Legal, House of Lies, and such series as NCIS, Castle, Mad Men, S.W.A.T., and Grey's Anatomy. She has continued to work in film, television, and theater.