Kathryn Walker

Kathryn Walker (born January 9, 1943) is an American theater, television and film actress.

Walker was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Wells College in Aurora, New York, and was a Fulbright Scholar in music and drama.[1]

In 2008, Walker published a novel, A Stopover in Venice (Knopf, ISBN 0-307-26706-7).[2]

Philadelphia-born Kathryn Walker's classy career began on the off-Broadway New York stage with her performance in "Slag" in 1971. On Broadway she appeared in "The Good Doctor" (1974), "A Touch of the Poet" (1977), "Private Lives" (1983) and "Wild Honey" (1986), among others. She also has been a sporadic presence on daytime drama, including 'Search for Tomorrow" and "Another World," and received an Emmy award for her outstanding performance as "First Lady" Abigal Adams in PBS' 13-part epic miniseries The Adams Chronicles (1976). On film she has played co-star or secondary femme roles in Blade (1973), Slap Shot (1977), Girlfriends (1978) and Rich Kids (1979), and played John Belushi's wife in the dark, oddball comedy Neighbors (1981). She was once married to singer James Taylor.

With the late William Alfred, she co-founded The Athens Street Company. In 1997, she was Rothschild Artist in Residence at Radcliffe College. Her six-part documentary series The Millennium Journal has been shown on the PBS cable channel, Metro Arts. Over the years, she has become a strong force outside of acting. She has helmed many of the 92nd Street Y's classical theater productions, directing and/or adapting such plays as Euripides' "Hekabe" (2004); Sophocles' "Elektra" (2002); Euripides' "Medea" (2001); "The Bacchae of Euripides" (2000); and her own adaptation of Fagles' "The Iliad" (2006). She lives in both New York City and Tesuque, New Mexico.