Van Patten was born in New York City to Josephine Rose (née Acerno), a magazine advertising executive, and Richard Byron Van Patten, an interior decorator.[citation needed] Her mother was of Italian descent, while her father was of Dutch and English ancestry.
She is the younger sister of actor Dick Van Patten, and the half-sister of actor/director Tim Van Patten and actor John Van Patten. Following a relatively brief marriage to Thomas King at the age of 16 (she gave birth to a son, Thomas Jr., a year later), she married and divorced three more times, including to actor Dennis Dugan. She was married to actor Martin Balsam from 1959 to 1962, and they had a daughter, actress Talia Balsam.
Van Patten has appeared in dozens of television series. She was a member of the original cast of As the World Turns. She made her television debut as a featured regular on The Danny Kaye Show, after which she co-starred with Bob Denver and Herb Edelman in the 1968–70 sitcom The Good Guys as Claudia Gramus, the long-suffering wife of diner owner Bert Gramus (played by Edelman). She appeared in two episodes of Perry Mason ("The Case of the Prankish Professor" and "The Case of the Thermal Thief"). She appeared in guest or recurring roles on Stoney Burke, Hawaii Five-O, Gunsmoke, The Untouchables, The Law and Mr. Jones, The Twilight Zone ("Passage on the Lady Anne"), The Jack Benny Program, Family Affair, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, The Andy Griffith Show, Mr. Novak, The Outer Limits, Mannix, The Rockford Files, The Bob Newhart Show, The Odd Couple, The F.B.I., Lou Grant, Law & Order, Oz, and The Sopranos. On a 1976 episode of Columbo, "Old Fashioned Murder", Van Patten played the lead, as a museum owner and curator who commits murder. In 1974, she had a minor role in the episode "Negative Reaction" (with Dick Van Dyke) of the same series. In 1979, she starred as Iris Chapman in The Mary Tyler Moore Hour, and appeared in The Martian Chronicles the following year. In 1995, she played Maureen, Jennie's mother, for two seasons on the WB sitcom Unhappily Ever After. In 2005, she played Carol Prudy, Susan Mayer's stepmother, on two episodes of Desperate Housewives.

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