Joanna Kerns
Also Known As: Joanne Crussie DeVarona, Joanne Kerns, Joanna Kearns, Joanne DeVarona, Joanna DeVarona, Joanna De Verona
Biography: Joanna Crussie DeVarona Kerns is an American actress and director best known for her role as Maggie Seaver on the family situation comedy Growing Pains from 1985 to 1992. After Growing Pains ended, she turned to directing. She directed one episode of Growing Pains while starring on the show and got hooked. She has also directed episodes of television shows including Dawson's Creek, Titans, Scrubs, Private Practice, Psych, Felicity, Grey's Anatomy, Privileged, ER, Ghost Whisperer, Army Wives, Pretty Little Liars, Switched at Birth, The Goldbergs, This Is Us, and Fuller House. She has also made notable appearances in feature films, including A*P*E, Girl, Interrupted, and the 2007 comedy Knocked Up. She has also starred in a number of TV movies. In 1974, Kerns met a commercial producer, Richard Kerns, on the set of a commercial, and they married two years later. Their marriage lasted nine years and the couple had a daughter, Ashley Cooper. In 1994, she married Marc Appleton, a prominent Los Angeles architect. In August 2019, she filed for divorce from Appleton. She previously dated comedian and actor Freddie Prinze a short time before he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The two had worked together on the 1976 TV movie, The Million Dollar Rip-Off.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: San Francisco, California, USA
Birthday: February 12, 1953
Adult: No
Gender: Female
Popularity:
Known For:
All Over the Guy
Overview: A contemporary romantic comedy exploring the unlikely pairing of two 20-somethings thrown together by their respective best friends in hopes of igniting their own romance.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2001-08-10
Popularity:
Love Struck
Overview: Love Struck is a 1986 short film directed by Richard Masur, starring John Simon Jones and Judge Reinhold. In this modern American romance, an awkward, lovable girl goes after her crush. The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film.
Genres: Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1986-01-01
Popularity:
Coma
Overview: A young female doctor discovers something sinister going on in her hospital. Relatively healthy patients are having 'complications' during simple operations and ending up in comas. The patients are then shipped off to an institute that looks after them. The young doctor suspects there is more to this than meets the eye.
Genres: Thriller Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1978-01-06
Popularity:
A*P*E
Overview: A newly discovered 36-foot gorilla escapes from a freighter off the coast of Korea. At the same time an American actress is filming a movie in the country. Chaos ensues as the ape kidnaps her and rampages through Seoul.
Genres: Adventure Horror Science Fiction
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1976-07-23
Popularity:
Voices That Care
Overview: Behind the scenes making of the charity single "Voices That Care".
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1991-02-28
Popularity:
Mother's Day on Waltons Mountain
Overview: Mary Ellen marries Jonesy but they don't exactly have a good start.
Genres: Family Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1982-05-02
Popularity:
Shameful Secrets
Overview: A woman and her children seemingly live the idyllic suburban dream, but unbeknownst to their neighbors and friends, the kids are being brutally abused by their father who is unable to control his temper.
Genres: Thriller TV Movie Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1993-10-10
Popularity:
The Rape of Richard Beck
Overview: The tables turn for cynical police officer Richard Beck when he's viciously attacked by two homicidal crooks. Having never been empathetic toward the victims he's dealt with on a daily basis, Beck must now confront the tough system he was a part of. As he struggles to regain his status at work, he also must make sure those responsible for his attack are prosecuted.
Genres: Drama Crime TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1985-05-27
Popularity:
The Great Los Angeles Earthquake
Overview: After a series of small tremors in Los Angeles, Dr. Clare Winslow, a local seismologist, pinpoints the exact location and time of when the long awaited earthquake--"The Big One"--will strike southern California. With this information, she must battle city officials to release this information to the general public. Also, she hopes that her family is out of harms way when the quake strikes. Subplots show how other families and people cope with the the tremors that strike before the impending "Big One."
Genres: Drama Action TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1990-11-11
Popularity:
Not in My Family
Overview: Veronica Ricci is bombarded by strange feelings and fleeting involuntary memories about her childhood after giving birth to her first child. She seeks help from her estranged sister and soon realizes that these memories connect to childhood abuse that the sister underwent. Based on a true story.
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1993-02-28
Popularity:
The Man with Three Wives
Overview: A married doctor marries two other women and juggles a life with three wives.
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1993-03-28
Popularity:
Street Justice
Overview: A forgotten CIA agent escapes after 12 years and returns to his corrupt New Jersey hometown.
Genres: Action Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1987-01-01
Popularity:
The Growing Pains Movie
Overview: When the Seaver family reunites in Washington, D.C., to celebrate Jason and Maggie's 30th wedding anniversary, Maggie startles everyone when she announces her plans to run for Congress.
Genres: TV Movie Family Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2000-11-04
Popularity:
Growing Pains: Return of the Seavers
Overview: Jason and Maggie Seaver are ready to start a new chapter in their lives. The nest is finally empty, they've put the family home up for sale, and they're preparing to spend their retirement years traveling. But all that's easier said than done as Mike and a very pregnant Carol, each with their own agenda for wanting their parents to stay put, team up to sabotage the move. At the same time, little brother Ben, now a realtor, needs the big sale of his parents' home to please his boss. Meanwhile, Chrissie, an aspiring singer, just wants to get out from under her parents' watchful gaze so she can launch her career as a rock star.
Genres: Comedy Family Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2004-10-16
Popularity:
Terror in the Family
Overview: Fifteen-year-old Deena Marten wants the same freedom every teenager craves. But when she can't have her way, her rebellious temperament erupts in violence. Her parents, Cynthia and Todd, fear her new boyfriend, Garret, 17, is the cause. Distraught, Stephanie turns to alcohol, and Todd escapes in his work. They're unaware their Boy Scout son Adam, 13, sips from a vodka bottle hidden in his bedroom. And the problems in this dysfunctional family continue to worsen.
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1996-04-16
Popularity:
Mother Knows Best
Overview: A woman urges her daughter to get married. And when her daughter does, she doesn't think that she made a good choice. So she goes out and hires a killer to kill her son-in-law.
Genres: Drama Thriller TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1997-04-13
Popularity:
The Million Dollar Rip-Off
Overview: An electronics genius, who is an ex-con, and four of his lady friends devise a plot to steal millions of dollars from the Chicago Transit Authority. A detective, who had been keeping tabs on him since he got out of prison, suspects that he is up to something and tries to catch him at it.
Genres: Crime Thriller TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1976-09-22
Popularity:
Mortal Fear
Overview: Based on the provocative best-selling novel, a brilliant scientist finds the hidden link that can save countless lives, but when a crazed killer uses the same information to play God, millions are at risk. Dr. Jennifer Kessler is the one person who stands in the way of ultimate medical disaster. After witnessing one, then dozens of patients at her hospital mysteriously and unexpectedly die, her search for the truth leads her through a bizarre world of intrigue, passion and controversial secret medical research. As Dr. Kessler races against the clock to find a way to stop catastrophe, she finds herself up against an imposing and terrifying conspiracy implicating the entire U.S. insurance and medical system in the process.
Genres: Thriller TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1994-11-20
Popularity:
No Dessert, Dad, 'Til You Mow the Lawn
Overview: A couple manages to quit smoking by using hypnosis, but then their children decide to use it to manipulate their parents into more submissive behavior.
Genres: Family Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1994-07-27
Popularity:
Sisters and Other Strangers
Overview: A woman (Joanna Kerns), at odds with her eccentric sister (Debrah Farentino) over a real-estate deal, becomes the prime suspect when the latter is found dead.
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1997-05-06
Popularity:
Deadly Intentions... Again?
Overview: A doctor was sent to prison for the attempted murder of his first wife. When he is released, he starts to plan the death of his second wife whom he married before he was incarcerated.
Genres: Thriller TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1991-02-11
Popularity:
A Wedding on Waltons Mountain
Overview: Erin Walton is considering marrying her boyfriend Paul but her old boyfriend Ashley, who left for the war and married someone else, lived through his wife's death and would like to get Erin back, but Paul is not going to give her up so easily. Also Mary Ellen's boyfriend Jonesy who's a veterinarian is trying to establish a practice but everybody doesn't think he is competent. And Ben who has been minding the lumber business while their father's with their ailing mother in Arizona is having some problems and everybody's worried that he's digging himself a hole that he might not get out of.
Genres: Family Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1982-02-02
Popularity:
Stormin' Home
Overview: An aging motor-cross racer, already having lost his wife and daughter to his footlooseness and now about to have his semi-tractor cab repossessed, vows to make one last go of it on his bike in the race of his career.
Genres: Action Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1985-04-05
Popularity:
No One Could Protect Her
Overview: Fact-based drama about a smalltown rape victim who helps the police trap her attacker who has invaded her home again and again.
Genres: Crime Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1996-02-11
Popularity:
Whose Daughter is She?
Overview: Two mothers, one biological, one stepmother, fight for the custody and love of 13-year-old Andrea.
Genres: TV Movie Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1995-09-24
Popularity:
Marriage Is Alive and Well
Overview: A talented wedding photographer, at a crossroads with his own marriage, reflects on tales of past clients and the hope, adversity and romance that holy matrimony brings. Starring as the photographer, football great Joe Namath narrates the unconventional tales of three couples: Judd Hirsch and Melinda Dillon as a twosome who have married and divorced multiple times and who are on the verge of repeating their mistake; an anxious newlywed who prefers the "freedom" that living together allows; and Jack Albertson as an aging comedian who wants to marry his much younger secretary despite the disapproval of his son.
Genres: Comedy Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1980-01-25
Popularity:
Captive
Overview: Paul and Kathy Plunk buy a small motel in a lonesome mountain region in Oregon. Their newfound tranquility is broken by a pair of guests who turn out to be wanted criminals on run from the police. They need money, so they assault the Plunks, force them to withdraw all their money from the bank. But the nightmare just begins as they take the Plunks and their baby with them as hostages.
Genres: Drama Thriller TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1991-10-11
Popularity:
Desperate Choices: To Save My Child
Overview: Sixteen-year-old Cassie Robbins is a spirited teenage girl, who loves her father Richard and stepmother Mel and dotes on her six-year-old half-brother Willy. But her carefree, happy life is forever changed when she is diagnosed with leukeamia and her only hope of a cure lies in a bone-marrow transplant. However, when Willy proves to be a match, Mel is not-so-willing to allow her young son to undergo surgery as he nearly died the last time he was operated on after reacting badly to the anaesthetic. Mel and Richard now have to decide if it right to risk the life of one of their children to save the life of the other child. And of Willy's own rights in deciding if he should help the sister he hero-worships...?
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1992-10-05
Popularity:
See Jane Run
Overview: Jane Ravenson finds herself in the middle of a grocery store with $10,000 in her coat pockets and no memory of her life or who she is. Her husband eventually finds her and she starts to believe that her family life is fine until she feels a deep, nightmarish paranoia that something is horribly and terribly wrong.
Genres: Drama Mystery Thriller TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1995-01-08
Popularity:
Those She Left Behind
Overview: Scott and Sue Grimes are a happily married and affluent young couple who are about to start a family together. Unfortunately, that plan gets turned completely upside-down when Sue dies suddenly and unexpectedly while giving birth to their daughter. Now in the aftermath, Scott not only has to deal with the loss of his wife, he also has the daunting task of raising his daughter all alone.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1989-03-06
Popularity:
The Nightman
Overview: A drifter comes between an aging Southern beauty and her teenaged daughter.
Genres: Drama TV Movie Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1992-02-08
Popularity:
The Preppie Murder
Overview: This is the story of a young woman who was found dead. Now the police investigate, and evidence points to a man she was seen leaving a party with. Now when questioned, he claims that her death was accidental, as a result of rough sex. Now her family doesn't believe this, so they press the district attorney's office to try him for murder, but he has a good lawyer who plays his defense right down to putting the dead girl on trial.
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1989-09-24
Popularity:
A Bunny's Tale
Overview: A dramatization of Gloria Steinem's undercover investigation of the working conditions Bunnies faced at the Playboy Clubs.
Genres: Comedy Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1985-02-25
Popularity:
Emma's Wish
Overview: A lonely retirement home resident obtains a magical ring on her 75th birthday which grants her wish to again be young. Awakening the next morning she finds herself to be 40 years old again. She leaves the home and takes a position as a housekeeper for her daughter, who does not recognize her.
Genres: Comedy Fantasy TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1998-10-18
Popularity:
She's Having a Baby
Overview: Jake and Kristy Briggs are newlyweds. Being young, they are perhaps a bit unprepared for the full reality of marriage and all that it (and their parents) expect from them. Do they want babies? Their parents certainly want them to. Is married life all that there is? Things certainly aren't helped by Jake's friend Davis, who always seems to turn up just in time to put a spanner in the works.
Genres: Comedy Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1988-02-05
Popularity:
Girl, Interrupted
Overview: Set in the changing world of the late 1960s, Susanna Kaysen's prescribed "short rest" from a psychiatrist she had met only once becomes a strange, unknown journey into Alice's Wonderland, where she struggles with the thin line between normal and crazy. Susanna soon realizes how hard it is to get out once she has been committed, and she ultimately has to choose between the world of people who belong inside or the difficult world of reality outside.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1999-12-21
Popularity:
At the Mercy of a Stranger
Overview: When Thomas, a prominent doctor, hires a hitman to murder his wife, Elizabeth, the hitman decides to help Elizabeth after realizing she is not the person Thomas painted her to be. Together, they plot a way for Thomas to incriminate himself and get arrested.
Genres: Drama Thriller TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1999-11-03
Popularity:
Cross My Heart
Overview: A man and a woman go out on a "big" third date. He's ashamed to admit he just lost his job, and she's afraid he'll run away if he finds out that she has a kid. Small lies lead to bigger ones and the night gets crazy very soon.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1987-12-13
Popularity:
It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman!
Overview: TV adaptation of the campy 1960s Broadway musical about the Man of Steel, his friends, his enemies, and his self-image problems.
Genres: Comedy TV Movie Science Fiction Action Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1975-02-21
Popularity:
Knocked Up
Overview: A slacker and a career-driven woman accidentally conceive a child after a one-night stand. As they try to make the relationship work, they must navigate the challenges of parenthood and their differences in lifestyle and maturity.
Genres: Comedy Romance Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2007-06-01
Popularity:
The Return of Marcus Welby, M.D.
Overview: Marcus Welby is back, and he has a few problems. First he is trying to bridge the gap between an old friend of his who gave up practicing medicine in favor of being the hospital administrator, and his son who is now a doctor and who is currently treating and romancing a woman who has kidney problems. And one of his patients an expectant mother is in an accident along with her husband and her husband dies. She blames Mark and is refusing to bond with her new baby. And the hospital that he has been serving faithfully for years is considering letting some of their elderly staff members go and Mark is on top of the list.
Genres: TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1984-05-16
Popularity: