Every once in a while this column or the other reveals a hidden Hollywood dynasty. Not entirely through nepotism—honestly I don’t mind entertainment being a family business, given how long it has been. But what we’re more talking about is when celebrity families intermarry. Okay, Lurene Tuttle’s grandfather had owned an opera house and her father had toured with minstrel shows, it’s true. And she did marry Lux Radio Theatre announcer Melville Ruick. However, what’s truly interesting is that their daughter went on to marry John Williams. Yes, that John Williams.

Tuttle was born in Indiana and moved to Arizona, but the family’s eventual move to Southern California was definitely good for her career. She started working at the Pasadena Playhouse (my aunt sort of technically has a Tony for her own work with them), then moved to vaudeville. She then started radio and very quickly became one of the most-heard voices in the industry.

As we’ve established, it’s extremely difficult to track down people’s radio credits. What we know about Tuttle is that her debut was on Hollywood Hotel and led to a three-year contract. She did almost all the female voices on Sam Spade. She was on a show called The Whistler once playing a good twin and an evil twin, and this would have been live. She was on Dr. Christian, a show with scripts written by listeners—with a little editing by the show’s regular writers, apparently, but a young Rod Serling sent in a script. This is just a sampling of her known credits.

And from there, she had the most astounding career on both the small and large screens. She voiced the grandmother in Isao Takahata’s Heidi. She did a lot of TV—only her death in 1986 likely prevented her from being one of the Old But Vaguely Familiar guests on Murder, She Wrote, given the rest of her television career. She was in my beloved The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit, which I had to screenshot a subtitled YouTube video in order to get an image from. She was the sheriff’s wife in Psycho, which is what she’s doing here today, if you’re curious.

On top of all that, she was a good union woman. She was a founding member of the American Foundation of Radio Artists. Her costar Frank Nelson—someone you’d definitely know if you heard—tried to get their salaries on Hollywood Hotel raised to $35 a week while the guests were being paid $5000 for headliners. The frustration they both felt led to unionizing. And it did benefit them and those who would come after. You may not know the name, and the face and voice might only be vaguely familiar to her, but the work, including the organizing, lasts.

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