Joanna Pettet

By 1990, she had quietly retired from acting. Roberti died from a heart attack while bending to tie her shoelace. She also guest-starred four times on the classic Rod Serling anthology series "Night Gallery" and was a frequent visitor of "The Love Boat" and "Fantasy Island." After playing an LAPD homicide detective investigating the murder of singer Ciji Dunne (Lisa Hartman) on "Knots Landing" in 1983, Pettet's career slowed down in the mid-1980s. She began to work less frequently although two days before her death she performed a radio show with Al Jolson. Her feature film appearance became sporadic in the 1970s, but Pettet re-emerged as the star of over a dozen made-for-television movies during that decade, including "The Delphi Bureau" (1972), "The Weekend Nun" (1972), "Pioneer Woman" (1973), "A Cry in the Wilderness" (1974), "The Desperate Miles" (1975), "The Hancocks" (1976), "Sex and the Married Woman" (1977), and "The Return of Frank Cannon" (1980). Roberti replaced Thelma Todd in a couple of films after the death of Todd, but her health was failing due to heart disease. During that time, she married American actor Alex Cord and gave birth to a son in 1968. In Roberta (1935), Ginger Rogers played the role that Roberti had originated on Broadway, with reviewers commenting that Rogers' performance was a completely accurate imitation of Roberti's idiosyncratic speech and mannerisms.

Pettet got her start on Broadway in such plays as "Take Her, She's Mine," "The Chinese Prime Minister" and "Poor Richard" with Alan Bates and Gene Hackman before she was discovered by director Sidney Lumet for his sumptuous 1966 film adaptation of Mary McCarthy's novel, "The Group." The success of that film launched a film career that included roles in "Night of the General" (1967), the James Bond spoof "Casino Royale" (1967), "Blue" (1968) with Terence Stamp, and the Victorian period comedy "The Best House in London" (1969). She found success as a comedienne and was also popular as a singer on radio. Her mother remarried and settled in Canada, where she was adopted by her stepfather and assumed "Pettet" as her last name. Her sexy but playful characterisations, along the unusual accent she had acquired during her years in Europe and Asia, made her popular with audiences. Her father, Harold Nigel Edgerton Salmon, was a British RAF pilot killed in the war. She moved to Hollywood and during the 1930s played in a string of films. Talented, blonde Joanna Pettet was born Joanna Jane Salmon on November 16, 1944 in London, England. She made her Broadway debut in You Said It in 1931, and with its success became an overnight sensation.

For help, see How to Edit a Page and the style and How-to Directory . They moved to the United States in the late 1920s where Roberti began singing in nightclubs. After the article has been cleaned up, you may remove this message. As the family toured Europe and Asia, Roberti's mother left her husband, settling in Shanghai, China where the younger Roberti earned money singing. This article needs cleanup.
This article needs to be edited to conform to a higher standard of article quality. Born in Warsaw, Poland, Roberti was the daughter of a clown and as a child performed in the circus as a trapeze artist, and as a singer on vaudeville. Lyda Roberti (May 20, 1906 - March 12, 1938) was a film actress.