Karyn Kupcinet
Karyn Kupcinet | |
---|---|
Born | Roberta Lynn Kupcinet March 6, 1941 |
Died | November 28, 1963 West Hollywood, California, U.S. | (aged 22)
Cause of death | Homicide |
Resting place | Memorial Park Cemetery, Skokie |
Alma mater | Pine Manor College |
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1959–1963 |
Parent |
|
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
Early life
Karyn Kupcinet was born Roberta Lynn Kupcinet in Chicago, Illinois, to Irv Kupcinet, a sportswriter for the Chicago Daily Times, and his wife, Esther Kupcinet (née Solomon). Her younger brother, Jerry Kupcinet, was a director and producer in television. She acquired the nickname "Cookie" during her childhood. Kupcinet made her acting debut at age 13 in the Chicago production of Anniversary Waltz and went on to attend Pine Manor College for a semester, eventually studying at the Actors Studio in New York City.[1]
Career
Kupcinet's interest in acting was encouraged by her mother,
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,[3] nearly two months after her death.
Personal life
By 1961, Kupcinet was living in Hollywood and getting positive reviews for her acting.[4] She had a relationship with Skip Ward, whom she met on the series in which they both appeared. 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,[5] and began dating him.[1][5] 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.[1] One afternoon upon returning to his residence with a girlfriend, they heard noises in the attic and called the police. The authorities discovered Karyn Kupcinet in the attic, stalking Prine and his friends.
The
Kupcinet had longstanding issues with weight, which started after she began taking
Death
On November 28, 1963, Kupcinet had dinner with future
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."[8] 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.[9] At one point during the meal, she told an unsubstantiated story about a baby that had been abandoned on her doorstep earlier that day.[8] At 8:30 pm, a taxicab arrived to take Kupcinet home, and she promised to telephone the Goddards.[10]
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.[11]
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.
Coroner Harold Kade concluded that due to the fracture of the
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.[8] 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.[8]
Theories
Irv Kupcinet weighs in on Karyn's death
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.[14][15][1]
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.[16] He was suspicious of a person, still alive when he wrote his memoir, who had no connection to Prine.[16]
Alleged connection to JFK
Kupcinet's death was first mentioned in connection with the
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
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
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.[19] 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.[19] FBI agents questioned the two operators several hours after the assassination.[19] Their description of the woman's voice did not match Kupcinet's, especially in regard to her age.[19] The Star added that the two operators believed the woman on the phone was "mentally disturbed".[19]
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.[20] The Commission questioned many Chicagoans who had interacted with Ruby.[20] None of them had prior knowledge that he was going to shoot Oswald.[20]
Media attention
In the early 1990s, during the production and subsequent release of
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.[12]
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.[21][failed verification]
Legacy
Irv and Essee Kupcinet established a playhouse at
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.[24]
Filmography
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1960 | The Andy Griffith Show | Hannah Carter | Episode: "A Feud Is a Feud" |
1960 to 1961 | Hawaiian Eye | Maila Terry Crane |
2 episodes |
1961 | The Donna Reed Show | Jeannie | Episode: "Mary's Little Lambs" |
1961 | The Ladies Man | Working Girl | |
1961 to 1962 | The Gertrude Berg Show | Carol | 3 episodes |
1962 | The Red Skelton Show | Janet - Secretary | Episode: "How to Fail..." |
1962 | G.E. True
|
Marybelle | Episode: "The Handmade Private" |
1963 | The Wide Country
|
Barbara Rice | Episode: "A Cry from the Mountain" |
1963 | Going My Way | Amy | Episode: "Has Anyone Seen Eddie?" |
1964 | Perry Mason | Penny Ames | Episode: "The Case of the Capering Camera" |
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Felsenthal, Carol (June 2004). "The Lost World of Kup". Chicago Magazine. Archived from the original on December 15, 2018. Retrieved February 10, 2022.
- ^ a b Lane, Lydia (March 29, 1962). "No Starch, No Sweets". Los Angeles Times. p. C11.
- ^ Brian; Merrill, Diana (1987). "Episode Guide, The Seventh Season". The Perry Mason TV Show Book. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 161–172. ISBN 978-0312006693
- ISBN 1-56171-142-X.
- ^ ISBN 0-375-70471-X.
- ISBN 1-56171-142-X.
- ^ Korman, Seymour (December 2, 1963). "4 Face Quiz in Starlet's Slaying". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved November 5, 2009.
- ^ ISBN 0-375-70471-X.
- ISBN 0-375-70471-X.
- ISBN 0-375-70471-X.
- ISBN 0-375-70471-X.
- ^ a b c d e f McAdams, John C. "Dead in the Wake of the Kennedy Assassination: Hollywood Homicide". Marquette University.
- Chicago Magazine. p. 7. Archived from the originalon December 15, 2018. Retrieved November 7, 2007.
- ^ Stephan Benzkofer (November 24, 2013). "Karyn Kupcinet 1963 death still unsolved". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved July 7, 2015.
- ^ Phil Potempa (November 29, 2013). "OFFBEAT: Chicago gossip columnist Kup never forgot beloved daughter". Northwest Indiana Times. Retrieved July 7, 2015.
- ^ ISBN 0-933893-70-1.
- ^ Jones, Jr., Penn. "Papers of Penn Jones Jr. Kennedy Assassination Materials 1963-1998". Baylor Collections of Political Materials. Baylor University. Archived from the original on August 28, 2006.
- ^ Fecteau, Paul (2005–2006). "Zapruder's Stepchildren: The Most Fascinating People in J.F.K. Assassination Lore". Washburn University. Retrieved November 28, 2007.
- ^ a b c d e Mystery Oxnard-area caller whispers about JFK's death minutes before shooting, Ventura County Star, November 21, 2013
- ^ a b c "Appendix 16: A Biography of Jack Ruby". Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. 1964. p. 786.
- ^ Death of a Dream: Karyn Kupcinet: The E! True Hollywood Story. Yahoo TV
- ^ Severo, Richard (November 11, 2003). "Irv Kupcinet, 91, Dies; Chronicled Chicago for 60 Years". New York Times.
- ^ Shur, Cindy (November 7, 2006). "Remembering Irv Kupcinet". Jewish United Fund.
- ^ Fecteau, Paul. "A Search for Karyn Kupcinet". Washburn University. Archived from the original on February 11, 2012. Retrieved February 10, 2022.
Further reading
- Austin, John. Hollywood's Unsolved Mysteries. Shapolsky Publishers. 1990. ISBN 0-944007-49-X.
- Kupcinet, Irv and Paul Neimark. Kup: A Man, An Era, A City. Bonus Books. 1988. ISBN 978-0-933893-70-2.
External links
- Karyn Kupcinet at IMDb