Linda Purl

Linda Purl is an American actress who began performing as a child in Tokyo, where her family moved when she was five and where she trained at the Toho Geino Academy and appeared in plays and films for Toho. After returning to the United States at fifteen, she had a small part in Jory (1973) and then took her first major movie role in Jonathan Demme's comedy Crazy Mama (1975). She became familiar on television as Fonzie's steady girlfriend Ashley Pfister on Happy Days, as Charlene Matlock in the first season of Matlock, and as Pam Beesly's mother Helene on The Office. Her films include the horror movie Visiting Hours (1982), Mighty Joe Young (1998), and Fear of the Dark (2003). A jazz vocalist as well, she has released several albums, and she has appeared on stage in The Glass Menagerie at the Cleveland Play House.