Louise Latham: Screen and Stage Actress (1922–2018)

Johnie Louise Latham, actress, was born into a family of ranchers in Mason, Texas, on September 23, 1922. Her parents were John C. and Clair Lee (McMillan) Latham. After attending the Hockaday School in Dallas, she graduated from Sunset High School in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas in 1940. In addition to acting in student plays, she was her class’s Most Popular Senior Girl, a cheerleader, secretary of the Thespians, All Around P. E. Girl, and a member of the National Honor Society.

Margo Jones and Broadway

Latham attended the University of Texas at Austin before graduating from Southern Methodist University in 1944. At the University of Texas, she starred in a play directed by Margo Jones, who later established a nationally-famous repertory theater group in Dallas. Latham joined Jones’s company before marrying Raymond Archibald Pittman, Jr., who worked for the United States diplomatic service, on September 26, 1948, and moving to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. After five years in Brazil and a divorce, she returned to Dallas and Jones’s company. Among the roles she played in Jones’s productions were Gwendolyn in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Ernest in 1948; Rosalind in William Shakespeare’s As You Like It in 1954; and Rachel Brown, fiancée of a schoolteacher arrested for teaching evolution, in the world premiere of Inherit the Wind in 1955.

After the death of Margo Jones in 1955, Latham went to Broadway, where she had roles in a revival of George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara (1956–57), Invitation to a March (1961–62), and Isle of Children (1962). She also appeared in a touring company of Tennessee Williams’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958). In 1960 Latham made her television debut in an episode of the anthology series Armstrong Circle Theatre (1950–63).

Marnie (1964)

In 1963 one of Latham’s Hockaday classmates, Jay Presson Allen, was hired by Alfred Hitchcock to write a film script from the novel Marnie (1961) by British author Winston Graham. She recommended Latham for the role of Bernice Edgar, the invalid mother of the title character. After Hitchcock saw Latham in an episode of The Defenders television series (1961–65), he convinced Universal Studios to fly her in from New York for an audition. She was housed in a suite at the upscale Montecito Hotel in Hollywood and given a copy of the script for Marnie. The role was all but guaranteed to her, but she almost lost her chance. As Latham later recalled, her taxi was caught in traffic on her way to a meeting with Hitchcock and she was half an hour late. She saw Hitchcock’s limousine pulling away and ordered the cab driver to follow him. When Hitchcock’s car came to a stop, she jumped out of the taxi, ran to the limo, tapped on the window, and introduced herself. Hitchcock’s response was reportedly, “You’re supposed to be much older” (Latham was only seven years older than Tippi Hedren, who was to play her daughter in the film). Nevertheless, he cast her as Marnie’s mother. Latham was forty-one years old when she got her first film credit, and the role is likely her best-known.

Although the film was only a modest success, a supporting role in a Hitchcock movie, particularly one starring Sean Connery at the peak of his James Bond fame, was a good platform to launch a film career. “Marnie changed my life,” Latham said in 1965. “All I want from acting is to satisfy my soul. Marnie did that, now I want some more of the same.” Indeed, after Marnie Latham found her services in demand in Hollywood. During the next thirty-five years she became a familiar face on television. Able to pick and choose her roles, she noted, "The most important thing in an actress’ life is choice, and with success comes a broader choice.” She worked steadily in television and movies until the end of the century.

Television Career

Latham’s numerous television credits included parts on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962–65), Perry Mason (1957–66), Ben Casey (1961–66), Ironside (1967–75), McCloud (1970–77), Cannon (1971–76), Hawaii Five-O (1968–80), Kojak (1973–78), Columbo (1971–78), The Six Million Dollar Man (1974–78), CHiPs (1977–83), Falcon Crest (1981–90), and Murder, She Wrote (1984–96). She had regular roles on the Western series Sara (1976) and the medical drama Hothouse (1988), the latter of which was created by Jay Presson Allen, but both were cancelled in their first seasons due to low ratings. Latham had a recurring role on Eight Is Enough (1977–81) and made five appearances on The F.B.I. (1965–74) and six on Gunsmoke (1955–75). She also appeared in numerous made-for-television movies and several television miniseries.

According to a personal anecdote, Latham’s uncle had said of her being cast in a Hitchcock film that she would have to appear in Bonanza (1959–73) if she wanted family members to catch her act. She did ultimately appear in two episodes of the show, “A Real Nice, Friendly Little Town” in 1966 and “The Silent Killer” in 1971. One of the highlights of Latham’s television career was her appearance in the final episode of The Fugitive (1963–67). At the time it was the highest-rated television episode of all time, with a 72 percent share of households. Other memorable television roles included Fran Heiger on Family Affair (1966–71), Aunt Kate on The Waltons (1972–81) in 1977, and Perky Sugarbaker on Designing Women (1986–93) in 1986. Her final television credit was for an episode of The X-Files (1993–2002) in 2000.

Further Film and Stage Career

Latham continued her feature movie career with Firecreek (1968) with James Stewart and Henry Fonda; Hail, Hero! (1969), the film debut of Michael Douglas; Adam at Six A.M. (1970), again with Michael Douglas; Making It (1971); White Lightning (1973) with Burt Reynolds; The Sugarland Express (1974), directed by Steven Spielberg; 92 in the Shade (1975) with Peter Fonda; The Philadelphia Experiment (1984); Mass Appeal (1984) with Jack Lemmon; and Paradise (1991) with Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson. Her last film appearance was in Love Field (1992), a drama set in the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination, starring Michelle Pfeiffer.

Latham continued to act onstage. In 1988 she won a Drama-Logue Award (voted on by West Coast theater critics) for Outstanding Performance in Sam Sheperd’s A Lie of the Mind at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.

Second Marriage and Death

On July 23, 1968, in Hamilton County, Texas, Latham married television producer Paul Romeo Picard, best-known for developing The Dukes of Hazard (1979–85). Her second marriage also ended in divorce. Louise Latham died at the age of ninety-five on February 12, 2018, at Casa Dorinda, a retirement home in Montecito, California, a suburb of Santa Barbara. Montecito was, coincidentally, the name of the hotel where she stayed when she began her career in Hollywood. Her remains were cremated.