Joan Tompkins, legally known as Joan Swenson (July 9, 1915–January 29, 2005) was an American actress of television, film, radio, and stage, who co-founded with her husband, Karl Swenson, an acting company in Beverly Hills, California. In the 1962-1963 television season, Tompkins played legal secretary Trudy Wagner in twenty-eight episodes of Edmond O'Brien's NBC legal drama Sam Benedict, co-starring Richard Rust. From 1967-1970, she guest starred nine times as Lorraine Miller in Fred MacMurray's CBS situation comedy, My Three Sons, with her last appearance in the episode "St. Louis Blues" on December 19, 1970.According to the Social Security Death Index, Tompkins, listed as Joan Swenson at death, was living in New York when she procured her Social Security number, probably in the late 1930s. In 1938, at the age of twenty-three, she joined Henry Fonda in performing plays in White Plains, New York. Thereafter, she performed on radio in the soap opera role of Nora Drake on This Is Nora Drake, which ran on CBS radio until 1959. She appeared on Broadway in New York City in stage productions of Pride and Prejudice and My Sister Eileen. During her radio performances, she met Karl Swenson, who portrayed the Scandinavian Lars Hanson on Michael Landon's Little House on the Prairie NBC television series. Tompkins herself guest starred twice on Little House. The couple married sometime after Swenson and his first wife, the former Virginia Hanscom (1908–2003), divorced. They were living in southern California by 1957.
After World War ll, Joan offered to become a foster parent for a war orphan. From many photos she chose a crippled Polish boy - Tomek Machcinski, who later became a photographer known as " the man of a million faces". In 1994 their story was portrayed in the documentary "Child from a catalog".
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She was also a radio-actress,and became well known on radio in the role of Nora Drake, heroine of the soap opera, "This Is Nora Drake".
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Stage-actress on Broadway in "Pride and Prejudice", "My Sister Eileen" and many other plays. Early in her career, in 1938, she played opposite Henry Fonda in a run of plays in White Plains, New York.
Actress
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Awakening Land
1978
TV Mini-Series
Aunt Cornelia
The Waltons
1977
TV Series
Mrs. Herbert
Rich Man, Poor Man - Book II
1976
TV Series
Mrs. Rowe
Barnaby Jones
1973-1976
TV Series
Judge Edith Royce / Mrs. Porter / Miss Wilson
The Streets of San Francisco
1973-1976
TV Series
Elaine Holtfield
The Bob Newhart Show
1973-1974
TV Series
Mrs. Cowens / Aunt May
Police Woman
1974
TV Series
Mrs. Bailey
The Manhunter
1974
TV Series
Mrs. Beal
Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law
1972-1974
TV Series
Judge Elizabeth Keyes / Judge / Clare Tomkins
Griff
1973
TV Series
Ruth
Love Story
1973
TV Series
Sarah Kaplan
This Is the Life
1973
TV Series
Dorothy Swanson
Crime Club
1973
TV Movie
Phone Supervisor
Mod Squad
1973
TV Series
Millie Lindner
Set This Town on Fire
1973
TV Movie
Alice Whittier
The F.B.I.
1972
TV Series
Margaret Barnard
Mary Tyler Moore
1972
TV Series
Mrs. Thorn
Marcus Welby, M.D.
1972
TV Series
Mrs. Hackett
Here Comes the Judge
1972
TV Movie
Secretary
Medical Center
1972
TV Series
Mrs. Magruder
The Scarecrow
1972
TV Movie
Mistress Cynthia Merton
Night Gallery
1971
TV Series
Mrs. DeWitt (segment "Pickman's Model")
The Harness
1971
TV Movie
Millie Chappel
Lassie
1964-1971
TV Series
Katherine / Mrs. Davis
I Love My Wife
1970
Grandma Dennison
My Three Sons
1967-1970
TV Series
Lorraine Miller
The Young Rebels
1970
TV Series
Mrs. Meeley
Mayberry R.F.D.
1970
TV Series
Emily
The Christine Jorgensen Story
1970
Aunt Thora
Zig Zag
1970
Judge Beth Weaver
I Dream of Jeannie
1969-1970
TV Series
Mrs. Endicott / Mrs. Winkler
The Brady Bunch
1969
TV Series
Mrs. Tyler
Popi
1969
Miss Musto
Bonanza
1969
TV Series
Mrs. Murray
Ironside
1968
TV Series
Miss Denny
Bewitched
1968
TV Series
Harriet Walters
Mannix
1967
TV Series
Mrs. Dover
Mission: Impossible
1967
TV Series
Miss Putnam
Occasional Wife
1966-1967
TV Series
Mrs. Brahms
The Fugitive
1965-1967
TV Series
Rose Newmark / Madge Glenn
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
1966
TV Series
Mrs. Gropkin
ABC Stage 67
1966
TV Series
Meg
Made in Paris
1966
Ruth (uncredited)
Dr. Kildare
1962-1965
TV Series
Mrs. Hamilton / Mrs. Jason / Mrs. Hutchinson / ...