Karyn Kupcinet (born Roberta Lynn Kupcinet; March 6, 1941 – November 28, 1963) was an American stage, film, and television actress. She was the daughter of Chicago newspaper columnist and television personality Irv Kupcinet, and the sister of television director and producer Jerry Kupcinet. Kupcinet had a brief acting career during the early 1960s. Six days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, her body was found at her home in West Hollywood, California. With her death officially ruled an unsolved homicide, and occurring so close to the assassination, her name became one of hundreds added to the multiplicity of theories that emerged after the assassination. Kupcinet's father publicly dismissed the theories linking his daughter to the president's death. In 1992, after NBC's Today program briefly referred via a caption to her alleged connection to the assassination, Irv Kupcinet described the broadcast as "an atrocious outrage" and "calumny". Karyn Kupcinet's death remains officially unsolved. Early life Karyn Kupcinet was born Roberta Lynn Kupcinet in Chicago, Illinois, to Irv Kupcinet, a sportswriter for the Chicago Daily Times, and his wife, Esther Kupcinet (née Solomon). Her younger brother, Jerry Kupcinet, is a director and producer in television. She acquired the nickname "Cookie" during her childhood. Kupcinet made her acting debut at age 13 in the Chicago production of Anniversary Waltz and went on to attend Pine Manor College for a semester, eventually studying at the Actors Studio in New York City. Career Kupcinet's interest in acting was encouraged by her mother, and she was afforded access to producers through the reputation of her father. In 1961, Jerry Lewis offered Kupcinet a role in the film The Ladies Man, where she appeared in a bit part as one of dozens of young ladies in a Hollywood boardinghouse. In 1962, she appeared in the role of Annie Sullivan in a Laguna Beach summer theater production of The Miracle Worker. She also appeared in guest roles on television, including The Donna Reed Show, The Wide Country, G.E. True, Going My Way, The Andy Griffith Show, and Death Valley Days. In addition to guest spots, Kupcinet had a regular role in the prime-time series Mrs. G. Goes to College (retitled The Gertrude Berg Show during its short run). Kupcinet's last onscreen appearance was on Perry Mason in the role of Penny Ames, in an episode entitled "The Case of the Capering Camera". The episode aired on