Joanna Merlin

Acting

Joanna Merlin

Born — Died

1931-07-16 — 2023-10-15

Place of birth

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Known for

Acting

Credits

46 titles

Joanna Merlin (born Joann Ratner; July 15, 1931) was an American actress and casting director who has worked with Stephen Sondheim and starred in the original Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof. She has written two acting guides and is a faculty member of New York University's graduate acting program. In recent years, she has become known for her recurring role on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Judge Lena Petrovsky. Joann Ratner, who later took her mother's maiden name, was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Toni Merlin and Harry Ratner, a Jewish grocer. Her family also included her older sister Harriet Glickman (1926-2020) who would go on to gain recognition for having helped pers…

Known for

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit poster
8.0

In the criminal justice system, sexually-based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

1999

Law & Order poster
7.3

In cases ripped from the headlines, police investigate serious and often deadly crimes, weighing the evidence and questioning the suspects until someone is taken into custody. The district attorney's office then builds a case to convict the perpetrator by proving the person guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Working together, these expert teams navigate all sides of the complex criminal justice system to make New York a safer place.

Law & Order

1990

The Good Wife poster
7.6

Alicia Florrick boldly assumes full responsibility for her family and re-enters the workforce after her husband's very public sex and political corruption scandal lands him in jail.

The Good Wife

2009

Homeland poster
7.6

CIA officer Carrie Mathison is tops in her field despite being bipolar, which makes her volatile and unpredictable. With the help of her long-time mentor Saul Berenson, Carrie fearlessly risks everything, including her personal well-being and even sanity, at every turn.

Homeland

2011

American Experience poster
6.5

TV's most-watched history series brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.

American Experience

1988

L.A. Law poster
7.0

L.A. Law is an American television legal drama series that ran for eight seasons on NBC from September 15, 1986, to May 19, 1994. Created by Steven Bochco and Terry Louise Fisher, it contained many of Bochco's trademark features including a large number of parallel storylines, social drama and off-the-wall humor. It reflected the social and cultural ideologies of the 1980s and early 1990s, and many of the cases featured on the show dealt with hot-topic issues such as abortion, racism, gay rights, homophobia, sexual harassment, AIDS, and domestic violence. The series often also reflected social tensions between the wealthy senior lawyer protagonists and their less well-paid junior staff. The show was popular with audiences and critics, and won 15 Emmy Awards throughout its run, four of which were for Outstanding Drama Series.

L.A. Law

1986

Film credits

2000s · 3 titles

1990s · 9 titles

City of Angels poster
6.8

When a guardian angel – who invisibly watches over the citizens of Los Angeles – becomes captivated by a strong-willed heart surgeon, he ponders trading in his pure, otherworldly existence for a mortal life with his beloved. The couple embarks on a tender but forbidden romance spanning heaven and Earth.

City of Angels

1998

Class Action poster
6.3

A liberal activist lawyer alienated his daughter Maggie years ago when she discovered his many affairs. Now a conservative corporate lawyer, Maggie agrees to go up against her father in court. To gain promotion, she must defend an auto manufacturer against charges that their explosion-prone station wagons are unsafe. As her mother begs for peace, Maggie takes on her dad in a trial that turns increasingly personal and nasty.

Class Action

1991

Witness Protection poster
6.3

Would you be willing to walk away from everyone and everything you've ever known in exchange for your safety? This is the question facing career criminal Bobby "Bats" Batton (Tom Sizemore); on the outs with the mob and facing prosecution for a number of serious crimes, Batton is offered a deal by the FBI in which he will be given immunity in exchange for testifying against his former partners. However, Batton will have to join the Federal Witness Protection Program, which means that he, his wife, and his children will never again see their friends and family.

Witness Protection

1999

Two Bits poster
5.7

It's a hot summer day in 1933 in South Philly, where 12-year old Gennaro lives with his widowed mom and his ailing grandpa, who sits outside holding tight to his last quarter, which he's promised to Gennaro and which Gennaro would like to have to buy a ticket to the plush new movie theater. But grandpa's not ready to pass on the quarter or pass on to his final reward: he has some unfinished business with a woman from his past, and he enlists Gennaro to act as his emissary.

Two Bits

1995

Mr. Wonderful poster
5.6

Electrician Gus gets the chance to fulfil a childhood dream by buying an old bowling-alley with some of his friends, but first he must find his ex-wife a new husband so he can stop paying alimony.

Mr. Wonderful

1993

Murder in Black and White poster
7.0

A recently appointed black police commissioner is killed. So, Frank Janek is assigned to investigate.

Murder in Black and White

1990

The Prosecutors poster
8.0

Drama (and prospective pilot) about the lives of three women who work in the New York City DA's office: one a brilliant prosecutor of high-profile cases whose husband is shot and killed in an armed robbery; a second, her tough, bitter, chain-smoking, boozing, wheelchair-bound former mentor; a third, a Latina who is an ambitious legal intern.

The Prosecutors

1996

Love, Honor & Obey: The Last Mafia Marriage poster
6.0

The story of Rosalie Bonnano, the daughter of a powerful New York Mafia boss who married the son of her father's rival, another powerful New York Mafia boss.

Love, Honor & Obey: The Last Mafia Marriage

1993

MURDER and murder poster
4.9

Mildred and Doris are two middle-aged white women, from very different backgrounds, who become lovers and set up house together. Film explores the pleasures and uncertainties of later-life emotional attachment and lesbian identity in a culture that glorifies youth and heterosexual romance.

MURDER and murder

1996

1980s · 10 titles

Fame poster
6.4

A chronicle of the lives of several teenagers who attend a New York high school for students gifted in the performing arts.

Fame

1980

Prince of Darkness poster
6.8

A priest discovers an ancient canister containing a strange liquid in an abandoned church. When a group of graduate students and scientists are tasked with studying it, they unknowingly unleash an evil force waiting to destroy all of humanity.

Prince of Darkness

1987

The Killing Fields poster
7.5

New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg is on assignment covering the Cambodian Civil War, with the help of local interpreter Dith Pran and American photojournalist Al Rockoff. When the U.S. Army pulls out amid escalating violence, Schanberg makes exit arrangements for Pran and his family. Pran, however, tells Schanberg he intends to stay in Cambodia to help cover the unfolding story — a decision he may regret as the Khmer Rouge rebels move in.

The Killing Fields

1984

Mystic Pizza poster
6.3

Three teenage girls come of age while working at a pizza parlor in Mystic, Connecticut.

Mystic Pizza

1988

Baby It's You poster
6.0

In a 1966 New Jersey high school, Jill and new student Sheik from the other side of the tracks make their way in a first love romance.

Baby It's You

1983

Jacobo Timerman: Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number poster
10.0

An Argentinian newspaper publisher is imprisoned by his government for dissent.

Jacobo Timerman: Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number

1983

Nurse poster
8.0

Michael Learned plays Mary Benjamin, a recently widowed woman who, confronted with her son's departure for college, decides to resume her career as a head nurse in a Manhattan hospital in this pilot movie for the short-lived TV series.

Nurse

1980

Love Child poster
5.6

The true story of Terry Jean Moore, a young woman who is imprisoned for seven years on account of a "five-dollar" robbery. While in prison, she gets pregnant by a jailer and must fight to keep her child.

Love Child

1982

Soup for One poster
5.4

A neurotic young New Yorker believes he has found his perfect match and desperately tries to win her over.

Soup for One

1982

Starstruck poster
8.0

Aspiring teen folk singer is torn whether to continue her singing or to accept an educational scholarship.

Starstruck

1981

1970s · 3 titles

Series credits

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit poster
8.0

In the criminal justice system, sexually-based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

1999

Law & Order poster
7.3

In cases ripped from the headlines, police investigate serious and often deadly crimes, weighing the evidence and questioning the suspects until someone is taken into custody. The district attorney's office then builds a case to convict the perpetrator by proving the person guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Working together, these expert teams navigate all sides of the complex criminal justice system to make New York a safer place.

Law & Order

1990

Law & Order poster
7.3

In cases ripped from the headlines, police investigate serious and often deadly crimes, weighing the evidence and questioning the suspects until someone is taken into custody. The district attorney's office then builds a case to convict the perpetrator by proving the person guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Working together, these expert teams navigate all sides of the complex criminal justice system to make New York a safer place.

Law & Order

1990

The Good Wife poster
7.6

Alicia Florrick boldly assumes full responsibility for her family and re-enters the workforce after her husband's very public sex and political corruption scandal lands him in jail.

The Good Wife

2009

Homeland poster
7.6

CIA officer Carrie Mathison is tops in her field despite being bipolar, which makes her volatile and unpredictable. With the help of her long-time mentor Saul Berenson, Carrie fearlessly risks everything, including her personal well-being and even sanity, at every turn.

Homeland

2011

American Experience poster
6.5

TV's most-watched history series brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.

American Experience

1988

L.A. Law poster
7.0

L.A. Law is an American television legal drama series that ran for eight seasons on NBC from September 15, 1986, to May 19, 1994. Created by Steven Bochco and Terry Louise Fisher, it contained many of Bochco's trademark features including a large number of parallel storylines, social drama and off-the-wall humor. It reflected the social and cultural ideologies of the 1980s and early 1990s, and many of the cases featured on the show dealt with hot-topic issues such as abortion, racism, gay rights, homophobia, sexual harassment, AIDS, and domestic violence. The series often also reflected social tensions between the wealthy senior lawyer protagonists and their less well-paid junior staff. The show was popular with audiences and critics, and won 15 Emmy Awards throughout its run, four of which were for Outstanding Drama Series.

L.A. Law

1986

American Playhouse poster
6.6

American Playhouse is an anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service in the United States.

American Playhouse

1982

Northern Exposure poster
7.8

After receiving a scholarship from the state, a recent Columbia University medical school graduate is required to set up his practice in an eccentric Alaskan town.

Northern Exposure

1990

Naked City poster
5.7

Naked City is a police drama series which aired from 1958 to 1963 on the ABC television network. It was inspired by the 1948 motion picture of the same name, and mimics its dramatic “semi-documentary” format. In 1997, the episode “Sweet Prince of Delancey Street” was ranked #93 on TV Guide’s “100 Greatest Episodes of All Time”.

Naked City

1958

Amazing Stories poster
7.5

A truly amazing, fantastical, science fiction, funny and odd, and sometimes scary, sad and endearing anthology series presented by Steven Spielberg with guest appearances by many famous actors, actresses, and directors.

Amazing Stories

1985

New York Undercover poster
7.3

New York Undercover is an American police drama The series stars Detective J.C. Williams and Detective Eddie Torres, two undercover detectives in New York City's Fourth Precinct who were assigned to investigate various crimes and gang-related cases.

New York Undercover

1994

Another World poster
5.5

Another World is an American television soap opera that ran on NBC for 35 years from May 4, 1964 to June 25, 1999. Set in the fictional town of Bay City, the show in its early years opens with announcer Bill Wolff intoning its epigram, “We do not live in this world alone, but in a thousand other worlds,” which Phillips said represented the difference between “the world of events we live in, and the world of feelings and dreams that we strive for.” Another World focused less on the conventional drama of domestic life as seen in other soap operas, and more on exotic melodrama between families of different classes and philosophies.

Another World

1964

The Jury poster
9.0

Set in New York City, the series brings the viewer into the jury room to watch the deliberators try to answer the many questions posed during a trial. As facts are exposed through flashbacks of testimony and crime footage, viewers will form their own opinions about the guilt or innocence of the defendant. Following each verdict, a final flashback will let viewers see the crime as it actually happened and reveal whether or not the jury made the right decision.

The Jury

2004

In a Child's Name poster
7.8

A true story about a woman who fights her brother-in-law's parents for custody of her deceased sister's baby upon learning that her brother-in-law murdered her sister.

In a Child's Name

1991

Baby Talk poster
7.0

Baby Talk is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from March 8, 1991 until May 8, 1992 as part of ABC's TGIF lineup. The show was loosely based on the popular Look Who's Talking movies and was adapted for television by Ed Weinberger. Amy Heckerling created original characters for the series while using key creative and script elements from Look Who's Talking, which she had written and directed. Weinberger served as executive producer during the first season, and was replaced by Saul Turteltaub and Bernie Orenstein in the second season.

Baby Talk

1991