‘The Swimmer’ and ‘Donna Reed Show’ actress was 75 years old – The Hollywood Reporter
Janet Landgaard and Paul Petersen from “The Donna Reed Show”
Courtesy of the Everett Collection
Janet Landgaard, who accompanied Burt Lancaster on part of his bizarre tour of backyard swimming pools in the popular 1968 drama Swimmer, He died. She was 75 years old.
Actor Paul Petersen said Landgaard died this week after a very brief bout with brain cancer Hollywood Reporter. He recurred as his love interest in the last three seasons of the ABC family comedy The Donna Reed Show.
On Facebook, Petersen described her as “the best TV girlfriend my alter ego, Jeff Stone, ever had. Janet was a beauty, inside and out…a flawless Scandinavian beauty who literally stunned jaded Hollywood types into silence. We were always close no matter what.” Regardless of time or distance.
At Columbia Pictures Swimmer – Directed by Frank Perry and adapted by his then-wife, Eleanor Perry, from a short story by John Cheever in The New Yorker – Landgard was unforgettable as Julie Ann Hopper, who used to babysit Ned Merrill (Lancaster) but is now all grown up.
The two reconnect while Ned “swims his way home” using nearby pools in suburban Connecticut, but when she admits that she once had a crush on him, and he becomes a little too intimate, she runs away, leaving him to continue his strange journey. Single.
Janet Landgaard (center) with Burt Lancaster and Lisa Daniels in 1968 Swimmer
Born on December 2, 1947, Landgaard grew up in Pasadena and worked for the William Adrian Model Agency. While still at Pasadena High School, she made her screen debut in 1963 The Donna Reed ShowShe plays a girl named Sabrina in a season 5 episode. She also appeared on ABC My three sons That year.
She returned to play Karen, Jeff’s girlfriend, for 11 parts of the film The Donna Reed Show During 1965, the pair graced the cover of Teen screen magazine.
Landgard was featured as a rising young talent alongside Raquel Welch, Mary Ann Mobley, Barbara Parkins and others in the TV special. Hollywood stars deep in 1965Then she worked as a flight attendant Dream Girl in 1967executive produced by Chuck Barris.
after SwimmerLandgaard appeared in Earth invaders (1969), starring Telly Savalas, George Maharis and Arlene Dahl; In a 1971 ABC television movie Deadly dreamStarring Lloyd Bridges and Janet Leigh; And in Moon child (1972), starring Victor Buono, before she left acting.
Petersen said Landgaard was a “true outdoorswoman,” adding that she had been involved in horse racing in recent years. Information about survivors was not immediately available.
