Karyn Kupcinet

Karyn Kupcinet
Kupcinet in 1962
Born	Roberta Lynn Kupcinet (1941-03-06)March 6, 1941 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	November 28, 1963(1963-11-28) (aged 22) West Hollywood, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Homicide
Resting place	Memorial Park Cemetery, Skokie
Alma mater	Pine Manor College
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1959–1963
Father	Irv Kupcinet

Karyn Kupcinet (born Roberta Lynn Kupcinet; March 6, 1941 – November 28, 1963) was an American stage, film, and television actress. She was the daughter of Chicago newspaper columnist and television personality Irv Kupcinet, and the sister of television director and producer Jerry Kupcinet.

Kupcinet had a brief acting career during the early 1960s. Six days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, her body was found at her home in West Hollywood, California. With her death officially ruled an unsolved homicide, and occurring so close to the assassination, her name became one of hundreds added to the multiplicity of theories that emerged after the assassination.

Kupcinet's father publicly dismissed the theories linking his daughter to the president's death. In 1992, after NBC's Today program briefly referred via a caption to her alleged connection to the assassination, Irv Kupcinet described the broadcast as "an atrocious outrage" and "calumny". Karyn Kupcinet's death remains officially unsolved.

Karyn Kupcinet was born Roberta Lynn Kupcinet in Chicago, Illinois, to Irv Kupcinet, then a sportswriter for the Chicago Daily Times, and his wife, Esther Kupcinet (née Solomon). Her younger brother, Jerry Kupcinet, became, after her death, a director and producer of syndicated television shows. They were of Russian-Jewish ancestry.^[1] Roberta Lynn acquired the nickname "Cookie" during her childhood, and eventually chose Karyn as a stage name. She made her acting debut at age 13 in the Chicago production of Anniversary Waltz. By then, her father had transitioned from sportswriter to entertainment columnist and host, since 1953, of the 15-minute television talk show Kup’s Corner on (channel 2). She attended Pine Manor College in Massachusetts for a semester, eventually studying at the Actors Studio in New York City.^[2]

Kupcinet worked as a model and stage actress before she arrived in Hollywood. Her mother Esther "Essee" Kupcinet lived vicariously through her daughter. It was she who started her on that path.^[4]

While Karyn was still in diapers, her mother Essee began to groom her for stardom. “This is the child who was supposed to live out her [Essee's] dream,” said Peggy Schatz, friend of the family.^[5]

She made her debut on the public stage at just five-and-a-half months old as a model, her mother arranging for her to appear in baby clothing and accessories advertisements. In the years that followed, Karyn's modelling career continued steadily; she appeared in advertising campaigns in national newspapers, magazines and then TV commercials. Family cook John Clark said in an interview that ”the girl was talked into being an actress by her mother”; before she could read, her governess took her to acting lessons when Essee had other plans and read the scripts to her. Karyn would memorise the lines and perform little shows on cue for family and friends. At just three years of age, she made her entry into theatre with appearances in several 'Little Theatre' productions designed to groom children to be future stage actors.”^[2]

She made her professional acting debut in 1955 at age 13 in the Chicago production of 'Anniversary Waltz' by Jerome Chodorov. She understudied rising star Carol Lynley, who was also making her debut in that play.^[6]

Kupcinet attended the Francis W. Parker School in Chicago, starring in the school production of Pygmalion and graduating in the class of 1958. Her yearbook describes her as a fan of the musical Summer Stock and a future actress who is at home on the stage. She studied at Pine Manor College and was invited to join the production of Wozzyck with the Harvard University Drama Club before she headed to New York to study at the Actor's Studio under Lee Strasberg, Herbert Bergoff, Marc Daniels and Martha Graham.^[7]

When she left for California at age 20 to try her hand at motion pictures, she already had a substantial body of professional acting work under her belt, having appeared in "Apollo of Bellac" - "The Royal Family" with Linda Darnell, "The Chalk Garden" with Penny Wood, "Jenny Kissed Me," and "Time of the Cukoo"; she appeared opposite Darren McGavin in the 1956 season of 'Picnic,' for which she received rave reviews. She loved the stage and would prove her mettle by starring in a production of "Father of the Bride," appearing for fifteen gruelling weeks in Florida opposite veteran actor Pat O'Brien.^[9]

Decades after her murder, bloggers claimed falsely she originally had appeared on network television billed as "Tammy Windsor." Tammy Windsor was a different actress, however. Kupcinet, billed as Karyn Kupcinet or not credited at all, appeared in 31 movies, television shows, and TV commercials. She boosted her image and supplemented her income by modeling and appearing regularly on stage.

In addition to Kupcinet's mother’s strong encouragement,^[2] her father’s connections led to one of her first speaking parts in an electronic medium.^[2] In 1960, Jerry Lewis, a friend of Irv Kupcinet, offered Karyn a role in the film The Ladies Man, in which she appeared in a bit part as one of dozens of young ladies in a Hollywood boardinghouse. The movie was filmed between November 15, 1960 and February 21, 1961 at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles. Kupcinet also appeared in guest-star roles on television, including The Donna Reed Show, The Wide Country, G.E. True, Going My Way, The Andy Griffith Show, and Death Valley Days. In addition to guest spots, Kupcinet had a regular role in the prime-time series Mrs. G. Goes to College (retitled The Gertrude Berg Show during its short run).^[10]

The legitimate stage was Kupcinet’s forte, particularly during the year 1962. From July 17 through July 22, she appeared in the Laguna Beach Summer Theatre production of "The Miracle Worker.”^[2][11] She reprised her role as Kay in another production of "Father of the Bride," and also appeared in "Sunday in New York" in Chicago where her parents and brother lived.^[2]

Kupcinet's last onscreen appearance was on Perry Mason in the role of Penny Ames, in an episode entitled "The Case of the Capering Camera". The episode aired on CBS on January 16, 1964,^[12] seven weeks after her death.

By 1961, Kupcinet was living in Hollywood and getting positive reviews for her acting.^[13] She had a relationship with actor Skip Ward, whom she met on the series in which they both appeared.

In the summer of 1962, Kupcinet was arrested in Pacoima, California for shoplifting from a bookstore.^[14][15]

In December 1962, she filmed a guest-star appearance on The Wide Country and had her first meeting with one of the series' stars, Andrew Prine,^[15] and began dating him.^[2][15] However, the relationship was problematic due to Karyn wanting to make the relationship exclusive. Prine was newly divorced and was dating other people. After Kupcinet underwent an alleged abortion in July 1963, the relationship cooled further and Prine continued dating other women. In turn, Kupcinet began spying on Prine and his new girlfriend.^[2] One afternoon when Prine and a new girlfriend returned to his home, they heard noises in the attic and called the police. The authorities discovered Karyn Kupcinet in the attic, stalking Prine and his girlfriend.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department determined posthumously that Kupcinet had delivered threatening and profane messages, consisting of words and letters she had cut out of magazines, to Prine and herself.^[2] When Prine told her by telephone about anonymous messages that had been Scotch-taped to the door of his Los Angeles house,^[15] she said she had received them as well.^[2] They met to show the messages to each other; she seemed puzzled.^[2] Soon after her death, investigators for the sheriff's department found her fingerprints on the papers and the Scotch tape.^[2]

Kupcinet had longstanding issues with weight, which started after she began taking diet pills in high school. The pressure to stay thin intensified after Kupcinet was cast in the movie The Ladies Man, and she soon began abusing diet pills along with other prescription drugs.^[2] A Los Angeles Times interviewer, assigned to help Kupcinet promote The Gertrude Berg Show in March 1962, noted her talking exclusively about food and her weight.^[10]

"It's terribly difficult to keep your head clear in a town where the largest exports are make believe, fantasy and unreal reality. ...it's an emotional industry, buying emotions, moulding emotions, selling emotions. It's a women, a bitch wearing cheap clothes, too much make-up, costume jewellery [sic] and rented furs. It's a town where actors pour their life blood into it and then kill themselves because of it.”-- Karyn Kupcinet's diary, published for the first time 35 years after her death

On November 28, 1963, Kupcinet had dinner with future Lost in Space cast member Mark Goddard and his wife, Marcia Rogers Goddard, at their house on Coldwater Canyon Drive in Beverly Hills.^[16] The Goddards expected her to arrive at 6:30 pm, but she showed up in a taxicab an hour late.

The couple later reported that Kupcinet only toyed with her food during the meal and avoided eating. Marcia told Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies that "her lips seemed numb. Her voice was funny. She moved her head at odd angles."^[17] The Goddards also noticed that Kupcinet's pupils were constricted. When Mark confronted Kupcinet about her behavior, she began to cry and put her arm around him.^[18] At one point during the meal, she told an unsubstantiated story about a baby that had been abandoned on her doorstep earlier that day.^[17] At 8:30 pm, a taxicab arrived to take Kupcinet home, and she promised to telephone the Goddards.^[19]

Kupcinet apparently went straight home after the dinner. She was visited by freelance writer Edward Stephen Rubin shortly afterward. The two were then joined by actor Robert Hathaway around 9:30 pm. Rubin and Hathaway told detectives the three of them watched television, including The Danny Kaye Show, and drank coffee until Kupcinet fell asleep next to them on the couch. She later awoke and went to her room. Rubin and Hathaway either turned the television off or simply lowered the volume (three days later it was still playing with a low volume) and made sure the door was locked behind them before departing at about 11:15 pm. Hathaway said that the two men returned to his place and were later joined by Prine, who was also Hathaway's neighbor. The trio watched television and talked until around 3:00 am.^[20]

The Goddards went to Kupcinet's apartment on November 30 after she failed to telephone the couple as promised. Mark later stated that he had a "funny feeling" that something was wrong.^[2] Upon entering the apartment, the couple found Kupcinet's nude body lying on the couch. Mark initially assumed that she had died from a drug overdose; upon searching the apartment, investigators from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department found prescriptions for Desoxyn, Miltown, Amvicel, and other medications.^[2][15] They also found a note written by Kupcinet that reflected in some detail her emotions regarding issues in her life and people she admired.^[21]

Coroner Harold Kade concluded that due to the fracture of the hyoid bone in Kupcinet’s throat, she had been strangled. Her death was officially ruled a homicide.^[22]

Investigators from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department determined that the story Kupcinet had told the Goddards about an abandoned baby on her doorstep, which she had also told Prine by telephone, was false.^[17] Neither the sheriff's office nor the Los Angeles Police Department had received a report of a baby found abandoned anywhere in Kupcinet's apartment building on the day before or after the murder.^[17]

The Los Angeles Sheriff's Office told FBI director J. Edgar Hoover that they felt Karyn had been taking a shower immediately preceding her death and had likely answered a fateful knock at the door, given the late hour and fact she opened the door indicated that she knew and trusted that person.^[23]

When questioned by law enforcement, Andrew Prine reported talking with Kupcinet by phone during the day on Wednesday. Others in the Hollywood community were questioned as well as both Rubin and Hathaway, the two men who had possibly been the last to see her alive, who were friends of Prine's. They were also eventually named as suspects.^[24][25][2]

In 1988, Kupcinet's father published a memoir in which he revealed that he and his wife Essee believed that Prine had nothing to do with their daughter's murder.^[26] He was suspicious of a person, still alive when he wrote his memoir, who had no connection to Prine.^[26]

Although public suspicion fell on Andrew Prine, Karyn's parents believed that evidence implicated actor/producer David Lange (actor) (1936-2006). “Essee and I thought it [evidence] pointed directly at David Lange, who had been a friend of Cookie's. But he was best known in Hollywood as a heavy drinker, a hanger on, and a go-fer. One day he told Cookie he was looking for an apartment and asked her if she knew of any availabilities. She inquired in her building and learned an apartment was vacant. It was on the first floor and he moved in. Cookie lived on the second floor. This juxtaposition became important on the night her body was discovered … Lange's behaviour that night made him suspect. He was in the bedroom of his apartment with a girl friend, who later told police that they 'heard some sort of commotion outside the apartment and it sounded like a lot of people were running up and down stairs'. Lange, she said, ignored the excitement and did not leave the bedroom to see what was happening. She also added that a short time later someone knocked on the door. He answered it, she said, 'and came right back to the bedroom and made no comment.' Police suspect the unidentified caller had informed him of Karyn's death, but he chose not to appear on the scene because he already knew what had happened. That enabled him to stay clear of the authorities.^[28]

“If that behaviour was suspect, there also was a 'confession.'” Irv Kupcinet continued, “The police report includes a statement from a friend of Lange who reported that he told her that he was the person who killed Karyn. Essee and I pressed the sheriff's police to pursue such a revealing statement, but their response was that they had tried with no success because Lange by this time had moved into the house of his sister, Hope, and she had retained attorneys who refused to let him answer any questions... The police subjected Lange to a polygraph test, which proved inconclusive. But no follow-up was done.” [28]

Kupcinet's death was first mentioned in connection with the John F. Kennedy assassination in 1967 by researcher Penn Jones Jr. in the self-published book Forgive My Grief II.^[29] Jones cited an Associated Press wire service story about an unidentified woman who placed a phone call from the vicinity of Oxnard, California, about fifty miles northwest of Los Angeles, twenty minutes before the assassination occurred in Dallas, Texas, claiming this woman was Kupcinet.

Jones alleged that "Karyn Kupcinet" had attempted to warn someone of the impending assassination after being given this information by her father Irv, who himself had allegedly been given advance notice by Jack Ruby, the Dallas nightclub owner who fatally shot Kennedy's accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. Jones speculated that Irv may have met Ruby in Chicago in the 1940s.^[21] Jones speculated Karyn had been murdered by representatives of the Italian-American Mafia as a message to her father to remain silent about why Kennedy and Oswald had been shot.^[30]

Irv Kupcinet denied that he or his daughter had prior knowledge of the assassination or of Oswald's death. This was supported by Kupcinet's friends, including Prine, actor Earl Holliman, and Holliman's then-girlfriend, all of whom traveled to Palm Springs with Karyn on November 22. Kupcinet reportedly seemed upset about media coverage of the shootings while in Palm Springs, as were her friends and millions of others.^[21] She did not reveal any foreknowledge of the events.^[21]

In 2013, the Ventura County Star commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination with a long article about the unknown woman who had formed the basis of Penn Jones' conspiracy theory.^[31] Citing FBI documents that were declassified decades after the assassination, the Star claimed that two telephone operators with General Telephone Company who listened to the unknown woman gave the FBI a description of her voice.^[31] FBI agents questioned the two operators several hours after the assassination.^[31] Their description of the woman's voice did not match Kupcinet's, especially in regard to her age.^[31] The Star added that the two operators believed the woman on the phone was "mentally disturbed".^[31]

Regarding Irv Kupcinet's alleged connection to Jack Ruby, the Warren Commission did not find any proof that Irv had interacted with Ruby in Chicago before 1947, when Ruby moved from Chicago to Dallas.^[32] The Commission questioned many Chicagoans who had interacted with Ruby.^[32] None of them had prior knowledge that he was going to shoot Oswald.^[32]

Karyn's death occurred six days after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy as rumors and theories were swirling around a motive that the Chicago syndicate and Sam Giancana (1908-1975) possibly had to avenge the Kennedy administration's tough stance on organized crime. Irv Kupcinet was rumored to have been friends with Sam Giancana, Tony Accardo (1906-1992) and other Mafia dons for decades, but he dismissed as "calumny" the notion that any of his friends killed his daughter. Kupcinet turned up at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office with yet another friend, Mafia lawyer and "fixer" Sidney Korshak (1907-1996) who helped him release his daughter's remains for burial. These facts, not published until decades later, fueled speculation and conspiracy theories that angered Irv Kupcinet.^[9][2][34] Kupcinet received a letter of condolence from Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, mother of his friend Robert Kennedy, who never commented publicly on a possible connection between the Chicago syndicate and Lee Harvey Oswald or Jack Ruby.^[2]

In the early 1990s, during the production and subsequent release of Oliver Stone's film JFK, Irv Kupcinet attacked the movie and the conspiracy theories surrounding it.^[21] When the film's box-office success led to a wave of media attention about Kennedy conspiracy theories, NBC's Today program broadcast a list of mysterious deaths, including that of Karyn Kupcinet. Irv responded to the Today broadcast in his column in the Chicago Sun-Times of February 9, 1992:

The NBC Today Show on Friday [February 7] carried a list of people who died violently in 1963 shortly after the death of President John F. Kennedy and may have had some link to the assassination. The first name on the list was Karyn Kupcinet, my daughter. That is an atrocious outrage. She did die violently in a Hollywood murder case still unsolved. That same list was published in a book years ago with no justification or verification. The book left the impression that some on the list may have been killed to silence them because of knowledge of the assassination. Nothing could be further from the truth in my daughter's case. The list apparently has developed a life of its own and for Today to repeat the calumny is reprehensible. Karyn no longer can suffer pain by such an inexcusable mention, but her parents and her brother Jerry can.^[21]

On September 30, 1999, an episode of E! True Hollywood Story, titled "Death of a Dream: Karyn Kupcinet", detailed Kupcinet's life and theories regarding her death.^[35]

Irv and Essee Kupcinet established a playhouse at Shimer College in honor of their daughter.^[36] In 1971, Irv Kupcinet and his wife also founded the Karyn Kupcinet International School for Science, a summer research internships program at the Weizmann Institute of Science.^[37]

In 2007, Kupcinet's niece, actress Kari Kupcinet-Kriser, and Washburn University professor Paul Fecteau, began work on a book about Kupcinet's unsolved murder and diaries.^[38] However the project came to nothing and was abandoned.

• List of unsolved murders of 20th century

• Austin, John (1990). Hollywood's Unsolved Mysteries. Shapolsky Publishers. ISBN 0-944007-49-X.
• Kupcinet, Irv; Neimark, Paul (1988). Kup: A Man, An Era, A City. Bonus Books. ISBN 978-0-933893-70-2.

• Karyn Kupcinet at IMDb