Kathryn Joosten

Kathryn Joosten is the kind of actress I genuinely root for, because she proved it's never too late. She came to acting later in life after working as a nurse, and still carved out unforgettable roles, Mrs. Landingham on The West Wing and the wonderfully prickly Karen McCluskey on Desperate Housewives, the latter earning her two Emmys. What moves me is that she found her stride in character work that lesser performers throw away. She passed in 2012, but those roles still land. To me she's a reminder that a second act, started in middle age, can outshine careers that began at twenty.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Name (English)

Kathryn Joosten

Name (Japanese)

キャスリン・ジューステン

Reading

きゃすりん・じゅーすてん

Born

December 20, 1939 – June 2, 2012

Origin

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Occupation

actor / nurse / television actor / film actor

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Sagittarius / Rabbit

Awards & achievements

• 2005 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series
• 2008 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series

• Official sitehttps://www.kathrynjoosten.com
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathryn%20Joosten
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%AD%E3%83%A3%E3%82%B9%E3%83%AA%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A5%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B9%E3%83%86%E3%83%B3
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q232511

Tags

• Illinois
• actor
• nurse
• television actor

Last updated

September 18, 2026

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.