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Kathryn JoostenAmerican actress
Date of Birth: 20.12.1939
Country:  USA |
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Biography of Katherine Joosten
Katherine Joosten, an American actress and two-time Emmy Award winner, is best known for her roles as Karen McCluskey in the television series "Desperate Housewives" and Dolores Landingham in "The West Wing." She was born Kathryn Rausch in 1939 in Chicago, Illinois. Before entering the world of cinema, Katherine worked as a nurse at Michael Reese Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in Chicago. She lived in Lake Forest, Illinois with her husband, a psychiatrist, and they raised two sons together. It was only after their divorce in 1980, when Katherine was already over 40, that she began acting in amateur theater. Her screen debut came in 1984 in the drama "Grandview, U.S.A.," and she later started getting small roles in television series.
Rise to Fame
In the mid-1990s, Katherine moved to Los Angeles, and her acting career soon gained momentum. During the same decade, she appeared in television series such as "Grace Under Fire," "Frasier," "NYPD Blue," "Seinfeld," "ER," "The Nanny," and many others. Her breakthrough came with the role of Dolores Landingham in the political series "The West Wing." Joosten played the character for two seasons, after which her character was involved in a car accident. However, she continued to appear in the series through flashbacks. Her next major role, and perhaps the biggest role of her entire career, was Karen McCluskey in the television series "Desperate Housewives," in which she appeared in all seasons of the show. It was for this role that Joosten won the Emmy Award in 2005, and repeated her success in 2008, becoming a two-time Emmy Award winner.
Battle with Cancer and Legacy
Unfortunately, Katherine's character Karen McCluskey in "Desperate Housewives" was diagnosed with cancer in the show, and Karen eventually passed away from the disease. Tragically, just 20 days later, Katherine Joosten herself died from cancer on June 2, 2012, after a long and exhausting battle that lasted over 10 years. It is known that Katherine underwent several rounds of chemotherapy and a surgical operation, but the disease ultimately proved stronger. Throughout her career, Joosten played over 100 roles, despite starting her acting career relatively late at the age of 42. Most of her roles were on television. As mentioned before, Katherine Joosten was married and divorced, and she had two sons. She also became a spokesperson for the company Pfizer while fighting cancer. She appeared in an episode of the show "The Bold and the Beautiful" and shared her experience of battling the disease in social awareness videos.
