Where Is She Now: Lisa Gerritsen (Actress) as Bess - The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Updated: 7/29/11
Name: Lisa Gerritsen
Birth Name: Lisa Orszag
Born: December 21, 1957, Los Angeles, California
Claim To Fame: She is most famous for her role as Bess on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Family Life: She has been married to her husband John Rustan since 2000.
Info: Gerritsen began attending casting calls at the age
of eight where she landed a role in an episode of The Doris Day Show in 1968. She followed this with guest appearances in numerous TV shows including The Odd Couple, Bonanza, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, The Virginian and Family Affair.
She made several appearances on the television show Gunsmoke, and finally landed a regular role in the 1969 NBC comedy series My World and Welcome to It, which was based on the cartoons of author James Thurber.
In 1970, she landed the role for which she would become best known, that of Bess Lindstrom, daughter of landlord Phyllis Lindstrom, played by Cloris Leachman, in the Mary Tyler Moore Show. She remained on the show until it ended in 1975, and reprised the role in the 1975-1977 spin-off
series Phyllis.
Gerritsen has also appeared in many movies, including Airport as Libby Bakersfeld, and in The War Between Men and Women alongside Jack Lemmon and Barbara Harris.
Trivia: Is the granddaughter of child actor and screen-
writer True Boardman.
Is the great-granddaughter of silent film actors True Boardman and Virginia True Boardman.
Where Is She Now: Gerritsen left acting during the late 1970s, and not much was heard about her during the 1980s.
In the early 1990s, she worked for a software company as a computer systems consultant/networking specialist.
Most recently, she worked as an Independent Relocation Coordinator and Facilities Project Manager in the San Francisco Bay area. She currently lives with her husband John Rustan and son in Northern California.
