Kathryn Joosten
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Kathryn Joosten (born on December 20, 1939) is an Emmy Award winning American actress of Dutch descent, best known for her roles as secretary/aide Delores Landingham to President Josiah Bartlet on The West Wing, and Mrs. McClusky on Desperate Housewives.
[edit] Career
Although she had always had a dream of acting, Joosten did not begin to hone her craft until middle age in the 1980s, after taking acting classes in Chicago, Illinois.
It wasn't until the mid-1990s that Joosten made the move to Hollywood, where she took guest roles in television series such as Home Improvement, Picket Fences, Murphy Brown, ER, Seinfeld, Frasier, Just Shoot Me!, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dharma & Greg and The Drew Carey Show.
In 1999, Joosten took the role that would make her well-known, as Delores Landingham, secretary to President of the United States Josiah Bartlet (played by Martin Sheen) on The West Wing. Joosten played the role for two seasons, until her character's death in a car crash in 2001. She would return to the show twice more in flashback episodes.
Joosten's role on The West Wing gave her an entrance into more significant guest roles on significant television series. Since 2001, she has appeared in television series such as Scrubs, Spin City, The X-Files, Judging Amy, Monk, Charmed, Will & Grace, Malcolm in the Middle, Grey's Anatomy, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, So Little Time, Gilmore Girls and a recurring role as one of many incarnations of God seen by the title character (played by Amber Tamblyn) on Joan of Arcadia.
As of September 24, 2006, Joosten has guest starred in nine episodes of Desperate Housewives as Karen McCluskey, the bickering elderly neighbour of Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman). For this role, Joosten has won an Emmy award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, and appeared as a presenter at the 2005 Emmy Awards telecast. Recently, Joosten appeared in the film Wedding Crashers, starring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson. She continues to reprise her role on Desperate Housewives as well, even receiving a 2006 Screen Actors Guild Award nomination with the rest of the cast for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.
