Linda Purl was born on September 2, 1955, and she is an American singer and actress. She is most well-known for her roles as Ashley Pfister on Happy Days (where she played Gloria as Richie’s date in season 2 episode 6), Sheila Munroe in the 1982 horror film Visiting Hours, Pam Beesly’s mother Helene in The Office, and Ben Matlock’s daughter Charlene Matlock in the first season of Matlock.
Early life
Purl was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, on September 2, 1955, to Jewish parents Marshelline “Marshie” Purl and Raymond Charles Arthur Purl, an executive in the chemical industry.
Mara is her sister. Beatrice Saville, the girls’ grandmother, helped establish the Actors’ Equity Association. Purl moved to Japan with her family when she was five years old, where her father worked for Nippon Univar.
There, she spent her childhood and got her acting training at the Toho Gino Academy. Purl appeared in several plays at the Imperial Theatre in Tokyo. He played Louis in The King and I, Bet in Oliver!, and in The Miracle Worker, Helen Keller.
She was also discovered by Toho and appeared in several films. Purl returned to the United States at the age of 15. She completed her high school education at Wykeham Rise School, a private boarding school for girls in Washington, Connecticut, that focuses on the creative and performing arts. While still in secondary school, she played a part in the drama The Mystery Tempest.
Purl went to England to study under Marguerite Beale then returned to the United States to study with Robert Lewis at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.
Film
In the 1975 comedy Crazy Mama, directed by Jonathan Demme, Purl played her first significant role. In the 1973 movie Jory, Purl only played a small part. Some of his subsequent film appearances include W.C. Fields and Me (1976), Young Pioneers’ Christmas (1976), Leo and Loree (1980), Visiting Hours (1982), The High Country (1984), Viper (1988), Natural Causes (1994), Mighty Joe Young (1998), The Perfect Tenant (2000), and Fear of the Dark (2003).
Television
Linda Purl has appeared in several television series, beginning with the daytime “soap opera” drama The Secret Storm (1973–1974).In the ABC western drama series The Young Pioneers, which was based on Rose Wilder Lane’s novels and was set in the Dakota Territory in the 1870s, she played newlywed Molly Beaton in 1978.
She also appeared in the 1979 television movie Like Normal People alongside Shaun Cassidy. She also appeared in “Women at West Point” in 1979.”She played two different roles on Happy Days: Gloria, Richie’s sporadic girlfriend in the second season of the show (1974), and Ashley, Fonzie’s consistent girlfriend eight seasons later (1982–1983).
She also played secret agent Kate Del’Amico on the short-lived show Under Cover and Brett Robin on the show Robin’s Hoods, which ran from 1994 to 1995. She has also appeared in numerous television movies, including Spies, Lies, Naked Thighs, Little Ladies of the Night, Testimony of Two Men, and The Night the City Screamed.
In a 1985 direct-to-video episode of The Greatest Adventure, she played Delilah.Scripture-based tales. Purl showed up in a top pick cast in the very much respected verifiable personal television small-scale series Eleanor and Franklin in 1976, broadcast on the American Telecom Organization (ABC) TV station.
She portrayed President Theodore Roosevelt’s daughter, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, in this scene. Purl played the role of “Ruth,” a teen babysitter who was held captive by a mentally ill veteran, in a 1975 episode of the long-running Hawaiian-language local show Hawaii Five-O as a guest star.
She appeared in two roles on The Waltons: early on, in 1974, in the episode “The Spoilers” from season three; in 1977, in the episode “The Heartbreaker” from season five, she played Vanessa, Mary Ellen’s sister-in-law, and Jason’s love interest, and she sang a few songs there. She appeared in Manions of America in 1981.
She was the blind flower girl Nydia in the 1984 miniseries “The Last Days of Pompeii.”She made an appearance in the 1985 episode of Murder, She Wrote titled “Murder at the Oasis.”She made a second appearance on Murder, She Wrote in the episode “Mourning Among The Wisterias” in 1988, and she made a third appearance on the show in the episode “Dead Eye” in 1993.
Purl played Charlene, Ben Matlock’s lawyer daughter, in the first season of Matlock (1986–1987), which also starred long-time comedy actor Andy Griffith in a typically dramatic role. She was cast as Sarah Novelli, the wife of Justice Joseph Novelli and a real estate agent, in the 2002 television series First Monday. Beginning with the 2009–2010 season six episode “Niagara,” Purl played Pam Beesly’s mother on NBC’s The Office.
Purl was a romantic interest for Steve Carell’s character and appeared in additional episodes throughout the series. She appeared as a guest on Desperate Housewives in May 2010. Purl played Elizabeth Gaines on Showtime’s Homeland in 2011 as a guest star. In 2012, she portrayed Debbie Pelt’s mother, Barbara Pelt, in two episodes of HBO’s True Blood.
In the 2017 episode of Designated Survivor titled “The Ninth Seat,” Purl played an old college supervisor of President Kirkman who assists in the selection of Supreme Court nominees.
| Name | Linda Purl |
| Profession | Actress And Singer |
| Date of Birth | 2 September 1955 |
| Age | 67 years |
| Height | 1.65 m |
| Net Worth | $10 Million |
Always be Updated with us visit GeeksULTD for Real-time Updates
