Bio
Joyce DeWitt is an American actress best known for her role as Janet Wood on the television sitcom Three's Company, appearing in all but one episode of the series, from 1977-1984.
She was the second of four children, born to Paul and Norma DeWitt on April 23, 1949 in Wheeling, West Virginia. DeWitt has Swedish, Italian and Irish ancestry. She grew up in Indiana and begand taking acting lessons when she was in high school.
Her father wasn't thrilled about his daughter's ambition, but she managed to persuade him to let her major in theatre in college. Joyce soon moved to UCLA where she received her master's degree.
After college, she worked as a legal secretary while at the same time going from audition to audition. Months passed before ABC offered her a choice of two comedy pilots but gave her only 24 hours to decide on which.
After reading both scripts in a hurry, she chose the one about one guy living with two girls (Three's Company).
She chose well - the other show never sold. She had been in numerous amounts of plays before but became familiar to everyone as the sensible, down-to-earth, football jersey wearing, brunette roommate, Janet Wood.
Dewitt became famous and while many celebrities would automatically welcome in the huge amounts of attention, she usually kept to herself and didn't care too much for publicity.
Once the series ended she left acting for 11 years, citing Hollywood politics and "disrespectful treatment" she received from the producers of Three's Company during the run of the show.
In 2003 she co-produced and hosted the television film Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Three's Company, with actress Melanie Deanne Moore portraying her during her time on the show.
The documentary exposed a once idyllic workplace that deteriorated into a battleground beset by business dealings, contact disputes, cast rivalries, clashes between producers and network executives and finally, a round of cast replacements which hastened the demise of the show.
DeWitt and her former Three's Company co-star Suzanne Somers have had an acrimonious relationship (caused by Somers' mid-season salary negotiation ploy in 1980) and to this day do not speak to each other.
However, she and Priscilla Barnes (Somers's replacement on the show) became lifelong friends.
Famous for refusing to do any scenes bare-legged (she always wore either pantyhose or tights), DeWitt became a paid endorser for L'Eggs hosiery in the late 1970s.
Since Three's Company DeWitt has guested in episodes of Finder of Lost Loves (1984) and Hope Island (2000). She appeared in the made-for-TV movie Spring Fling! in 1995, in the feature film 18 (2001) and the TV Specials The Nick at Nite Holiday Special (2003) and The 3rd Annual TV Land Awards (2005), in which she parodied Teri Hatcher's character from Desperate Housewives, Susan Mayer.
Prior to (or during) Three's Company, DeWitt starred in two episodes of the television action show Baretta (her screen debut in 1975), and in single episodes of Supertrain (1979), The Ropers (as her Three's Company character Janet, in 1979) and The Love Boat (1979).
She also had roles in the made-for-TV movies Most Wanted (1976), With This Ring (1978), and Steve Martin: Comedy Is Not Pretty (1980); and had an uncredited role as Juror in the comedy feature film Airplane II: The Sequel (1982).