Zohra Lampert - Biography

Zohra Lampert (born 13 May 1937) is an American actress, who has had roles on film, television and stage. She may be best remembered for her role as the title character in the 1971 cult horror film Let's Scare Jessica to Death, as well as starring alongside Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty in the 1961 romance film Splendor in the Grass.

Biography

Personal life

Lampert was born in New York City, the daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants Rachil Eriss, a draper and hatmaker, and Morris Lampert, an architect and ironworker. Lampert attended New York's High School of Music and Art, and then the University of Chicago. She was briefly married to actor Bill Alton from 1957 to 1958. In March 2010, Lampert married radio personality Jonathan Schwartz in New York City.

Career

After working on minor stages for several years, she performed on Broadway in a Tony nominated performance in 1961's Look We've Come Through. She scored with a pair of small but noteworthy performances in the films Pay or Die and Splendor in the Grass.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s she was active in supporting roles in film and television, and won an Emmy for her performance as a sinister gypsy on an episode of Kojak (1975). She co-starred with Gena Rowlands in John Cassavetes' Opening Night in (1978).

She was a regular in the sitcom The Girl With Something Extra and the medical drama Doctors' Hospital. During the early 1970s, she created the role of Ellie Jardin on the CBS soap, Where the Heart Is, until her character was killed off in 1972.

In 1986, she appeared in Knight Rider: season 4, Hills of Fire.

Lampert worked less during the 1980s and 1990s. She appeared in roles as diverse as The Exorcist III (playing late actor George C. Scott's wife), and the offbeat 1999 film, The Eden Myth, her last feature film role.

During the '80s, Lampert became known as the commercial spokesperson for "Goya" food products.

Filmography

• Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) (girl in bar)
• Pay or Die (1960) (Adelina Saulino)
• Posse from Hell (1961) (Helen Caldwell)
• Splendor in the Grass (1961) (Angelina)
• The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (TV series)(1965-The Mad, Mad Tea Party Affair) (Kay Lorrison)
• A Fine Madness (1966) (Evelyn Tupperman)
• I Spy (TV series)(1967- Blackout) (Zili Markova)
• Bye Bye Braverman (1968) (Etta Rieff)
• Some Kind of a Nut (1969) Bunny Erickson
• Where the Heart Is (TV series) (1969) (Ellie)
• Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971) (Jessica)
• The Bob Newhart Show (TV Series)(1972-Motel) (Janine)
• The Connection (made-for-TV) (1973) (Hannah)
• The Girl with Something Extra (TV series) (1973–74) (Anne)
• Doctors' Hospital (TV series) (1975–76) (Dr. Norah Purcell)
• Opening Night (1977) (Dorothy Victor)
• Lady of the House (1978) (Julia de Paulo)
• The Suicide's Wife (made-for-TV) (1979) (Sharon Logan)
• Children of Divorce (made-for-TV) (1980)
• The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything (made-for-TV) (1980) (Wilma)
• The Cafeteria (1984) (Esther)
• Alphabet City (film) (1984) (Mama)
• Teachers (1984) (Mrs. Pilikian)
• Izzy & Moe (1985) (Esther Einstein)
• Ladies of the Corridor (made-for-TV) (1986)
• American Blue Note (1989) (Louise)
• Stanley & Iris (1990) (Elaine)
• The Exorcist III (1990) (Mary Kinderman)
• Alan & Naomi (1992) (Mrs. Liebman)
• Last Supper (1992)
• The Last Good Time (1994) (Barbara)
• The Eden Myth (1999) (Alma Speck)

Television

• Bob Newhart Show (Second season, second episode - hooker in Peoria)
• The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1963 episode - A Tangled Web)

• Hawaii 5-0 (1979 episode - Small Potatoes)

External links