Top TV Moments: Joanna Pettet

I was saddened by the recent news that Joanna Pettet had died. In the Comfort TV era she was a frequent guest star on several quality shows and was always memorable regardless of her role. To me she was television’s equivalent to the cool patrician blondes favored by Alfred Hitchcock in films like Vertigo and Marnie, and I’d argue she was a better actress than either Kim Novak or Tippi Hedren.In her personal life she played a bit part in one of the most infamous crime stories of the 20th century, having had lunch with Sharon Tate in Tate’s home just hours before she was murdered by the Manson Family. Rumer Willis played Pettet in Quentin Tarantino’s film Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood. Unlike many performers from that era, she was also busy in feature films, appearing in the first (sort of) James Bond movie, Casino Royale, the wartime mystery The Night of the Generals, and the underrated cult horror hit The Evil (trust me, it’s good). But it was on television that most of us came to…