Diana Muldaur (born August 19, 1938) is an American film and television actress. Muldaur's television roles include Rosalind Shays on L.A. Law and Dr. Katherine Pulaski in the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. She appeared in two episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series in the late 1960s, playing different roles (Drs. Miranda Jones and Ann Mulhall). She has been nominated for an Emmy twice, as a supporting actress on L.A. Law in 1990 and 1991.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised on the Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard, Muldaur started acting in high school and continued on through college, graduating from Sweet Briar College in Virginia in 1960. She studied acting under Stella Adler, and made her name on the New York stage. She was at one point a board member of the Screen Actors Guild and was the first woman to serve as president of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (1983–1985).
In 1965, Muldaur landed the role of Ann Wicker in the CBS daytime soap opera The Secret Storm. She then did a five-episode arc as Jeannie Orloff in the final season of Richard Chamberlain's NBC medical drama Dr. Kildare.
Various roles as a guest star in episodes of numerous television shows followed, including Bonanza, I Spy, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, The Invaders, Mannix, Mod Squad, Hawaii Five-O, The F.B.I., The Virginian, a two-episode arc on the Ben Gazzara drama Run for Your Life, and as a guest star in 1975 in S.W.A.T. playing Kate Darby in the episode "Terror Ship".
Collaborations between Muldaur and Burt Reynolds began when Muldaur appeared in an episode of Hawk (1966), a weekly procedural with Reynolds in the title role. Subsequently, they guest-starred in a third-season episode of The F.B.I. (1968), and Muldaur guest-starred in an episode of Reynolds' series Dan August (1970).
In 1967, Muldaur guest-starred on the Gunsmoke episode "Fandango" with James Arness. An excerpt of that episode's dialogue was sampled on the Pink Floyd album The Wall, after "Hey You" and before the brief song "Is There Anybody Out There?"
In 1968, she appeared in the original Star Trek episodes "Return to Tomorrow" as astrobiologist Lieutenant Commander/Dr. Ann Mulhall, and in "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" as psychologist Dr. Miranda Jones. During this time, a friendship with creator Gene Roddenberry formed that led to him casting Muldaur as Marg in the television film Planet Earth (1974) with John Saxon. Later, she appeared as Dr. Katherine Pulaski in 20 episodes of the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1988–1989).
Muldaur's first major role was as Belle in the ABC primetime serial Harold Robbins' The Survivors (1970). The soap, intended as a comeback vehicle for Hollywood star Lana Turner, was cancelled early into the 1970 television season after 15 episodes.
After the cancellation of The Survivors, Muldaur accepted a number of supporting roles in motion pictures, including The Swimmer (1968) with Burt Lancaster, football film Number One (1969), and psychological thriller The Other (1972) with Uta Hagen. She also appeared in Sidney J. Furie's The Lawyer (1970), One More Train to Rob (1971) with George Peppard and the John Wayne crime drama, McQ (1974).
Muldaur appeared in the ensemble-apocalypse thriller Chosen Survivors (1974) with Jackie Cooper, Richard Jaeckel, and Barbara Babcock. In 1977, she played Elaine Mati, the concerned wife of mentally unstable doctor Telly Savalas in the independent film Beyond Reason.
Other television guest-starring roles
In 1967, Muldaur guest-starred on Mannix episode "Coffin for a Clown". In 1971, she appeared as Rachel Bonham in The Men From Shiloh (rebranded name for the TV Western The Virginian) in the episode titled "The Politician". Muldaur guest-starred in a first-season episode of Alias Smith and Jones, "The Great Shell Game" in 1971. In the second season of Kung Fu in 1973, opposite David Carradine, she guest-starred in the episode "The Elixir" playing a traveling-show woman who yearned for freedom from men—topical at the time—and starred in the pilot episode of Charlie's Angels. In a 1972 Hawaii Five-O episode, she was a guest star along with Ricardo Montalbán.
She had a recurring role as Judge Eleanor Hooper on The Tony Randall Show during the show's 1976–1978 run, and was a guest star in season two of Fantasy Island. Muldaur guest-starred on The Incredible Hulk, playing the part of Helen Banner, David Banner's sister, in the season-three episode "Homecoming" in November 1979. In 1981, she played a nun in the fifth-season episode "Sanctuary".
In 1975, she made a guest appearance in an episode of The Rockford Files as Mrs. Bannister, a married woman who has an affair with a former cellmate of the series' title character. During this time, Muldaur also appeared on Police Woman, Quincy M.E., The Streets of San Francisco, The Love Boat, The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, and Hart to Hart, among others. She appeared in the first season of Angela Lansbury's Murder, She Wrote.
Muldaur had a recurring role on the seven-season Dennis Weaver mystery series McCloud as Chris Coughlin, McCloud's love interest. Her character was introduced in the pilot episode in 1970, and made her last of 16 appearances in April 1977. She reprised her role as Chris for the 1989 reunion movie The Return of Sam McCloud.
Muldaur was cast as conservationist Joy Adamson in the television drama Born Free about Elsa the Lioness. Filming for the ambitious project, which co-starred Gary Collins, took place in Kenya, and the NBC series, which debuted in the fall of 1974, lasted one season. Guest stars on Born Free included several of Muldaur's future co-stars, including Alex Cord (Chosen Survivors) and Susan Dey (L.A. Law).
In 1979, Muldaur starred with David Huddleston in the short-lived NBC sitcom Hizzonner, which lasted just seven episodes and co-starred Kathy Cronkite, daughter of news anchor Walter Cronkite. She played the mayor's secretary, Ginny.
First an Emmy-winning miniseries and then a weekly drama, A Year in the Life was a critical success for NBC, with a cast including Richard Kiley and Sarah Jessica Parker. As Dr. Alice Foley, Muldaur praised the show as an example of how television was becoming more realistic about women.