Article on Joyce and Ray

[Janet Tripper]

I found this on a TC group from Yahoo, this girl name Katie posted it! So I thought you'll might enjoy it!


The following scene should have been filmed from a helicoptrer
for the opening sequence of a movie about young love. It is night.
Rain is pelting down on Los Angeles, a relentless, driving, nagging
rain, turning the streets to slippery black canals. On the dark
parking lot, where ABC shoots their top rated series, Three`s
Company, darts a slight figure in boots and rain gear. She fumbles
for her keys, opens the car and starts inching a path into the wild
night.
At the same moment, around 7:30 p.m. we see a fellow dash across
the Cinema Center lot, in the Valley, where CBS films longtime hit,
Rhoda. He jumps into his car, and starts inching his way toward the
freeway. Shot from a helicopter, you`d see the two cars crawl across
the chaotic city roadways, detouring at points where roads are
inaccessible, but always detouring again to aim slowly toward a point
in a triangle where they will eventually intersect.
At one point the girl stops and rushes into a small grocery store
near the sea. She picks up lettuce, tomatoes, bean sprouts and on
second thought a little bunch of daiseies. At another point, the
fellow makes a pit stop at an Italian grocery and picks up pasta, to
go. They each travel about 40 miles after a 12-hour work day. But
they looked a long time for this house, as far away from the crowds
as they could get it, and once inside the door, its gorgeous.
The girl is Joyce DeWitt, that sparkling, vivacious, little
brunette who stars in Three`s Company; the girl who always thought
herself a loner, now finds herself filled with warmth, love,
generosity, and not a loner at all. The fellow is Raymond Buktenica,
one of those dedicated, totally involved actors, for whom nothing but
theatre used to exist. The fact is, they are both dedicated. They
eat, sleep, and dream acting. It never occured to them
that they would both have steady jobs as actors, on successful
series, at the same time. For awhile they couldn`t believe it. They
kept waiting for one of the shows to be cancelled. Obviously,
neither is about to be. And even if and when...as actor and actress
the two have proved themselves talented and creative pros.
"The greatest feeling that we have of what`s happening to us
right now, to our lives, is that it means sometime in the future, the
very near future, the next few years, we should be in a position to
work together," Joyce says. "To say 'we want to do this together;'
and we will. We`d love to do a film, but even more, we`d love to do
a play together...act together again on stage...thats how it all
started;how we got to know each other."
At UCLA, Joyce had come out to Los Angeles, strictly another
Alice in Wonderland, a girl who at 13 tried out for her first play at
Speedway High, Speedway Indiana, and felt like "my life was on the
line." She`d dreamed of being an actress from the time she`d seen
her first movie, and now there she was, a high school freshman,
shaking with fright, auditioning for The Green Pastures. She got the
part; two parts actually. She played a little child on Earth, and
also a little angel in heaven, all in blackface. It still
embarresses Joyce to remember that; but The Green Pastures is a black
conception of heaven, and there was no little black kids in
Speedway. Every morning, the cast would go to study hall and get
made up. They had to walk around all day with black legs and black
arms. She`s never forgotten how scared she was. "I still am when I
audition, but not so much during performances. If I`ve really done
my homework, am really ready, its like diving into water-one smack
and then it all begins to flow."
In Green Pastures she had only 8 lines, but she had hit the water
for the 1st time and was swimming; and she still keeps a graceful
spot in her heart for Don Johnson, the dedicated drama coach, who
gave her encouragement all through high school and starred her in
plays as difficult as Medea.
She never said, out loud, that she wanted to be an actress-
never. She just kept on doing her thing. One time, when Joyce was a
senior at Ball State University, Muncie, her roommate reported a
conversation she had with Joyce`s worried dad. He had felt so sure
by the time Joyce got through college she`d have given up her theatre
dreams; "What are you doing this for?" he`d ask his daughter. "It`s
make-believe, Joyce." And she would counter, "But Dad, there`s no
exsistence as enticing and exacting as an exsistence on the stage."
It was like soaring, thats what it was. Her dad, a practical man,
did his best to discourage her. Her mother said nothing. "She`s a
sweet little lady that thinks everything will work out alright,"
Joyce explains.
The summer after graduation, Joyce played in stock at Rockford,
Illinois, and the guest director was Eddie Hearn from UCLA. He`d
designed the MFA in the Theatre Arts department there.
"I`d always been mesmerized by film," Joyce says. "I still am.
I sit there watching as if I`m on another planet, but I never
imagined myself on TV. However, when my room mate and I came out to
California at the end of the season, it was really to check out that
program at UCLA." Having checked it out, she went back to Indiana to
work for a year and earn money to come West and enter UCLA. (She
couldn`t imagine moving to the West Coast and not having some sort of
homebase.)
UCLA changed her life. A real culture shock. Everything exploded
into her sphere, including love. She met Ray in a crowded rehearsal
hall, and admits "I fell in love the minute I saw him. We sort of
spotted each other and knew from across the room: there`s trouble.
It was. Don`t get the idea that we just fell into each other`s
arms. We`re both strong-willed and stubborn. We come from different
environments. We spent a long time arguing about everything. There
were also other people involved in both our lives. It was a couple
of years before we finally got together, but we were close friends
from the time we co-starred in The Middle of the Night. It was one
of the greatest experiences of my life. I can`t tell you how
exciting it is to act with someone who is as gifted as Raymond. He
played a much older man, a Jewish character from the New York garment
district, who falls in love with a 24-year-old devoutly Catholic
girl. And the play was set in 1956, a time when there were still all
sorts of obstacles to such a romance. Raymond was wonderful. People
would come back after the performance anc couldn`t believe that he
was just a young man. He really is a master. Give him the worst
junk and his creative comedy sense will transform it into something
that has you in the aisles."
She is longing for her family to get to know him. They were out
here when she was doing All the Way Home at UCLA but they only met
him briefly, backstage. She and Raymond had planned to go back to
Speedway for Christmas to see her family and then on to New York to
meet his, but they both caught the flu and couldn`t go. Then, at the
very end of the week, Joyce felt better, called the airport and
caught a plane. She was home for one day and got sick all over
again. But hers was a very special Christmas. One of the marvelous
things about it was to see the enjoyment of her parents, her brother,
sister, and friends are getting from her career. "It makes it so
close to a reality for me, because I can`t find a reality in it
myself. I`m just really learning and adapting to television. I keep
waiting to wake up from a sort of dream."
Joyce finds instant stardom confusing. She doesn`t want her head
turned. Raymond is there to help. They work together, give each
other practical criticism and always needed confidence. They are
very private people who have created a world for themselves, and it
is for real. "We struggle everyday to remember where we came from,
who we were, because, the fact is, we change everyday. I love that.
But you have to maintain a center." That`s what they do for each
other. Ask her about marriage and she`ll honestly say "I don`t
know. The question sort of surprises me. We never talk about it.
It doesn`t seem necessary. We`re really so happy just stumbling
along."
Every morning, they`re off to their respective studios. At
night, they come back into each other`s arms. She can`t even cook
very well. They just pick up something and rush back to their own
very special sharing. And when you see Joyce bouncing around, giving
out all those sparks on Three`s Company, it`s not just talent,
although she had that too. It`s love!

[*Pleasant Tomorrow*]

Aw, that was a cute. Thanks for posting it.