Jessica Walter’s 8 Best Lucille Bluth Lines of All Time

Here’s how legendary of a performer Jessica Walter was: pretty much everyone can, upon hearing her name, recall their favorite Lucille Bluth joke. Everyone. Even if you’ve never seen Arrested Development, even if you only know of her ritzy sociopath character from Twitter memes, you know which lines speak to you. That’s because Jessica Walter was, I reiterate, a legend—the kind of powerhouse performer that could take even the blandest of lines and turn them onto a devastating punchline. Hell, one of her most iconic phrases is just one word: “Gene!” And Walter’s power is so eternal that you 100% just read that one word in Lucille’ Bluth’s giddy screechy scream.

Upon hearing the tragic news of Jessica Walter’s passing at the age of 80, Team Decider did exactly what all of you are doing: we started sharing all of our favorite Lucille Bluth lines. We all have them, and we can all recall our favorites without hesitation. Truly—can you think of another performance that left that much of a mark? That we, collectively, can all recall specific moments from episodes of a show that we probably haven’t rewatched in years—if not a decade? But that’s the kind of once-in-a-millennia performance that Walter turned in as Lucille Bluth. She was able to take lines that were, admittedly, hilarious on the page and turn them into sitcom moments that are so perfect, so pristine and sharp, that we’ve all pocketed them away in our brains like precious pearls. Pearls—that feels appropriate for Lucille.

So without further delay, here are Decider’s favorite Lucille Bluth lines. And if you have some to share, we will hear it, and we will respond to it.