Joyce Dewitt

About Joyce Dewitt

Joyce Anne DeWitt (born April 23, 1949) is an American actress perhaps most famous for her role as Janet Wood on the television situation comedy Three's Company.

Dewitt was born in West Virginia to Norma and Paul DeWitt. Although she was born in West Virginia, Joyce grew up in Speedway, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis. After she received a bachelor's degree from Ball State University, she moved to California to earn her masters degree from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). While attending UCLA, she worked part-time as a house painter and once was hired to paint the actor Abe Vigoda's garage doors. This painting job spawned a friendship between DeWitt and Vigoda which still endures.

Being an avid pantyhose wearer, DeWitt is famous for refusing to do any scenes bare-legged (she always wore either pantyhose or tights), and she became a paid endorser for L’eggs hosiery in the late 1970s. She became almost as famous for her disappearance after the series as she did for her Three's Company role; after the series, she did not appear as a regular player on any television series, which led to a number of "Whatever Happened to Joyce DeWitt?" retrospectives in newspaper entertainment columns and television gossip shows.