Mariette Hartley was born Mary Loretta, a name she dislikes, in Weston, Connecticut. She was raised in accordance with the principles espoused by her behavorial psychologist grandfather, John Watson, who believed that children should never be held or cuddled. She says that the lack of warmth at home is what drove her to the theatre. She studied with John Houseman at the Repertory Stratford and with Eva Le Gallienne at Lucille Lortel's White Barn Theatre. It took her six years to get her first movie, "Ride The High Country" with Joel McCrea. She then made a series of tv appearances and sitcoms. Ultimately she appeared with co-host Bill Beutel on "A.M. America" the the predecessor to ABC's "Good Morning America". She is most known, however, for her series of Polaroid commercials with James Garner. Mariette's father committed suicide with a self-inflicted gunshot in 1962. Her family kept it a secret for 25 years, but she eventually revealed the incident. This brought her considerable acclaim for speaking out about her devastation. She co-founded a suicide prevention foundation based her own past situation. She continues to work in the theatre and in 2000 was hosting the syndicated "Wild About Animals". Her children, Justine (b. 1978) is an actress and singer, and Sean (b. 1975) is a film-school graduate.



Educated at Carnegie Tech Is the grand niece of FDR's famous Secretary of the Interior, Harold L. Ickes. She is the grand-daughter of psychologist John Broadus Watson Rose in celebrity with her notable Polaroid commercial run with James Garner starting in 1977. She and Garner were so naturally convincing as husband and wife that Mariette had a tee-shirt that proclaimed, "I am not James Garner's wife!" More than 300 commercials were produced. Former actress-turned-nun Dolores Hart is Mariette's spiritual advisor, and by happenstance gave Mariette the inspired title of her one-woman show, "If You Get to Bethlehem, You've Gone Too Far." It seems those are the driving directions Sister Dolores gives when describing how to get to her convent in Woodbury, Connecticut. Along with her adult son, was spokesperson for the See Clearly Method (a VHS/DVD tutorial by Vision Improvement Technologies to naturally correct impaired vision) in 2003.