Dr. Joyce Brothers (Courtesy of LIFE)
Dr. Joyce Brothers—psychologist, advice columnist, radio and television personality, and pop-culture icon—died today at age 85. Her publicist confirmed her death with the AP, but did not disclose the cause, and her daughter Lisa has released this statement: "She passed away peacefully and in her home... with her family all around her."
Brothers (who was living in Fort Lee, NJ at the time of her death) was a New Yorker—she was born in New York in 1927, attended Far Rockaway High School in the 1940s, and was earning her BA in home economics at Cornell University soon after. But it was at Columbia University where she studied psychology and earned her master's degree and doctorate.
By 1958 her expertise was showcased on NBC, and according to the Paley Center she “paved the way for others in her field to bring their talents to television." But that wasn't her first time on television, three years earlier she gained fame by winning The $64,000 Question game show.
Just over a decade later, in the 1970s, Brothers was a household name—"her reach encompassing not only television and radio, but syndicated columns in some 350 daily newspapers, as well as features written for the Hearst papers and United Press International." She appeared on talk shows, games shows, and scripted tv (including Happy Days, ALF, Ally McBeal, and Entourage) throughout the rest of her life.
