What Hollywood actress was a lousy mother?

Joanna Moore.

Moore was a popular television actress in the 1950s and 60s, who appeared in scads of TV series, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Maverick, Perry Mason, Gunsmoke, The Fugitive, and The Rifleman; she also appeared in a number of films, and had a notable recurring role on The Andy Griffith Show as Andy’s love interest, Peggy McMillan.

As Peggy (with Andy Griffith):

Moore married fellow actor Ryan O’Neal in 1963; they had two children, Tatum and Griffin, before separating in 1966. The dissolution of her marriage led Moore to begin abusing substances (mainly alcohol and amphetamines) heavily, which in turn led her to be incredibly neglectful of her kids, who were 2 and 3, respectively, when the divorce became final in 1967.

Moore would routinely leave her children home alone, often with no food, for days at a time when on a bender; Tatum recalled at least one time when she and Griffin ate dog food out of the pantry because there was nothing else to eat. The children also were never enrolled in school, were not bathed regularly or given clean clothes, and were never taken to the doctor or dentist.

In 1971, when Tatum was 7 and Griffin, 6, Moore was arrested for DUI, and the extent of the neglect was soon discovered by the authorities, who removed them from her home and awarded custody to Ryan.

The irony, of course, is that Ryan himself was an addict and a terrible father, who abused his children physically and emotionally, and got both addicted to drugs (he would later get his youngest son, Redmond, whose mother was O’Neal’s longtime partner Farrah Fawcett, hooked on drugs as well).

Moore’s substance abuse derailed her acting career, and she would be arrested for additional DUIs multiple times throughout the 1970s and 80s. By that time, she was being fully financially supported by Tatum — who may have felt some sympathy for her mother due to her own addiction problems — and Tatum would continue to support her mother until Joanna’s death from lung cancer in 1997 at age 63.

With Ryan, Tatum, and Griffin in 1965, before things went off the rails: