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 married to actor Bill Alton from 1957 to 1958. In 2010, she married radio personality Jonathan Scwartz.

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. In the 1960s/70s 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 (1977).

She was a regular in the sitcom The Girl With Something Extra and the medical drama Doctors' Hospital. During the early 1970s, she originated 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 an episode of Knight Rider (season 4, "Hills of Fire"). She worked less during the 1980s and 1990s. She appeared in roles as diverse as The Exorcist III (playing actor George C. Scott's wife), and the offbeat 1999 film, The Eden Myth, which would prove to be her last feature film role for the next decade.

For several years in the 80s, Lampert appeared on-screen as the spokesperson for Goya Beans.

Later years

After a ten-year absence from films, Lampert returned to acting in supporting roles in two films: The Hungry Ghosts (2009) and Zenith (2010). In March 2010, she married broadcaster and novelist Jonathan Schwartz in New York City. In the 1980s Lambert made television commercials for Goya products.

Filmography

Feature films
Year	Film	Role	Notes
1959	Odds Against Tomorrow	Girl in bar	Uncredited
1960	Pay or Die	Adelina Saulino
1961	Posse from Hell	Helen Caldwell
1961	Splendor in the Grass	Angelina
1961	Hey, Let's Twist!	Sharon
1966	A Fine Madness	Evelyn Tupperman
1968	Bye Bye Braverman	Etta Rieff
1969	Some Kind of a Nut	Bunny Ericsson
1971	Let's Scare Jessica to Death	Jessica
1973	The Connection	Hannah	Television film
1977	Opening Night	Dorothy Victor
1978	Lady of the House	Julia de Paulo
1979	The Suicide's Wife	Sharon Logan	Television film
1980	Children of Divorce		Television film
1980	The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything	Wilma	Television film
1984	The Cafeteria	Esther
1984	Alphabet City	Mama
1984	Teachers	Mrs. Pilikian
1985	Izzy & Moe	Esther Einstein
1986	Ladies of the Corridor		Television film
1989	American Blue Note	Louise
1990	Stanley & Iris	Elaine
1990	The Exorcist III	Mary Kinderman
1992	Alan & Naomi	Mrs. Liebman
1992	Last Supper
1994	The Last Good Time	Barbara
1999	The Eden Myth	Alma Speck
2009	The Hungry Ghosts	Ruth
2010	Zenith	Mrs. Minor
2014	Sexual Secrets	Alma Speck

Television

• Route 66 (1960 episode, "Layout at Glen Canyon"): Sue
• The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1963 episode, "A Tangled Web")
• Naked City (1963 episode "Walking On Hot Coals") (Clara Espuella)
• The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (1965 episode, "The Mad, Mad Tea Party Affair") (Kay Lorrison)
• I Spy (1967 episode, "Blackout") (Zili Markova)
• Where the Heart Is (1969-70; series regular: Ellie)
• Then came Bronson (1969 TV series) Amid Splinters of the Thunderbolt: Mary
• The FBI (1970 episode, "Mary")
• The Bob Newhart Show (1973 episode, "Motel") (Janine)
• The Girl with Something Extra (1973-74) (Anne)
• Kojak (1975 episode, "Queen of the Gypsies"), (1978 episode, "The Halls of Terror")
• Doctors' Hospital (1975-76; series regular: Dr. Norah Purcell)
• Hawaii Five-O (1976 episode, "Let Death Do Us Part")
• Hawaii Five-O (1979 episode, "Small Potatoes")
• Knight Rider (1985 episode, "Hills of Fire")

[ Source: Wikipedia ]