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"People always think actors are really 'out there,' so you wouldn't have me pegged as one, but I knew pretty early on it was what I wanted to do, and I think that's pretty lucky." Talia Balsam may not seem like someone who would choose to be an actor, because she's very down to earth, but acting was in her blood and her family life from the beginning. Both of her parents were in the business, and that made it harder for Balsam to stay away and more interesting to get involved in roles she enjoyed. Throughout her career she's played a number of characters, most frequently in lesser-known movies and one-off TV appearances. But those smaller pieces of the acting puzzle have kept her busy since her first role at 20 years old. Read on to find out what she's doing now.

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Life Was Always About Acting, Even in the Early Days

Balsam was born in New York, but spent much of her life in Los Angeles. She is the daughter of actress Joyce Van Patten and actor Martin Balsam. Her relatives include Vincent and Dick Van Patten. Because she came from a family where acting was common and normal, she never really saw it as something special. It was just what some people did, and it was something she quickly realized that she wanted to do, as well. During her adolescent years she attended a boarding school in Tucson, Arizona, before returning to be with her family. Her first role was in Happy Days in 1977. From that point she had a number of TV roles. These included The Initiation of Sarah, Stickin' Together, Dallas, The Millionaire, and Fast Lane Blues, all in 1978.

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Most of the roles she played were single-episode characters, as well as smaller roles in TV movies. In 1979, she began taking roles in films, as well. Her first role was that of Ann Rosario in Sunnyside. After that, she continued in both TV series and movies along with feature films. Her credits for film include Mass Appeal (1984), Crawlspace (1986), The Kindred (1986), and Trust Me (1989), among others. In the 1990s, she took on additional movie roles along with other character portrayals in TV series and made-for-TV movies. She also married George Clooney in 1989 in Las Vegas. They were divorced in 1993, and Clooney has said he feels he didn't give her a fair chance because he really shouldn't have been married at that time in his life.

New Roles and a New Relationship

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The show business life and the people in it have always been normal for Balsam. She has said, "I didn't have a sense of being in a show business family or of being different, partly because Los Angeles is an industry town, so you don't think about it as being special." One of the people that acting brought across Balsam's path was John Slattery. He was an actor and director, and married Balsam in 1998. They have a son, Harry, together, and live in Manhattan. They played in Mad Men (2007 - 2015) together, as husband and wife Roger and Mona Sterling. The experience brought them closer and gave them a chance to work and play together, both on and off the screen.

Balsam has also been in a number of other movies and TV shows, beginning in the 1990s. She has had roles in Killer Instinct (1991), Coldblooded (1995), and Camp Stories (1997), along with Valerie Flake (1999). She was then in additional roles beginning in 2002, and appeared in a movie every year from 2005 until 2010. In 2011, she had roles in three films, and was in two more in 2015. IN 2016 she played Audrey in Little Men. While making movies, Balsam has also been appearing on television. The 1980s saw her with roles on shows like Hill Street Blues and Punky Brewster, along with Cagney & Lacey and Tales from the Darkside. Her versatility as an actress has been apparent with the number of roles she's taken throughout a long and varied career.

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But where is Balsam headed next? Right now she enjoyed the Manhattan area with her family. Her latest movie is called What is Life Worth, and is in the post-production stages. It doesn't yet have a release date scheduled. She also has a regular role on the HBO series Divorce, where she has been portraying Dallas Holt. The show began in 2016. Before that, Balsam had roles in The Newsroom and The Good Wife, both in 2014. She's most widely known for her role on Mad Men from 2007 to 2014, and fans will be waiting to see what this talented actress does next. Stay tuned!