Hollywood has lost a legend.
Cloris Leachman, the veteran actress of stage and screen — likely best known for her role as landlady Phyllis Lindstrom on The Mary Tyler Moore Show — has passed away.
She was 94 years old.
Leachman’s manager, Juliet Green, confirmed this sad piece of news to People Magazine, stating that he client died from natural causes.
“It’s been my privilege to work with Cloris Leachman, one of the most fearless actresses of our time,” reads thsi message.
“There was no one like Cloris.
“With a single look she had the ability to break your heart or make you laugh till the tears ran down your face.
“You never knew what Cloris was going to say or do and that unpredictable quality was part of her unparalleled magic.”
According to TMZ, the late star passed away at her home in Encinitas, California, with her daughter, Dinah, at her side.
Concluded Green in her statement:
“She loved her children and her grandchildren ferociously.
“A lifelong vegetarian, she was a passionate advocate for animal rights. The family requests that any donations in her name be made to PETA or Last Chance for Animals.”
As a young woman, Leachman actually competed in the Miss America pageant… which garnered her a scholarship at the Actors Studio in New York City.
Over the years, Leachman appeared in some incredibly very profile and popular movies, such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, High Anxiety, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Spanglish.
Her lengthy list of television credits reads as follows:
Gunsmoke, Lassie, Twilight Zone, The Facts of Life, Touched by an Angel, Raising Hope, and American God.
She also competed on Dancing with the Stars in 2008.
Over the course of her impressive career, Leachman won an Oscar (for The Last Picture Show in 1971 )and a Golden Globe.
She was nominated for over 20 Emmy Awards, winning a record nine times.
In the wake of Leachman’s passing, many have taken to social media to mourn her death.
“Cloris Leachman has passed. The Oscar and Emmy-winning funny lady stole her way into our hearts and always left us smiling. She was 94,” tweeted Star Trek star George Takei.
“Rest in peace, and save a laugh for us when we get there.”
Said Leachman upon winning her Academy Award:
“I’m having an amazing life, and it isn’t over yet.
‘Remember when Ben Johnson said in The Last Picture Show, ‘I’ve fought my whole life against’ whatever he said? I feel, I fought all my life against clichés. And look at me?
“I’m a hopeless cliché. … I am deeply honored by this.”
Leachman wrote in her 2010 autobiography that she was proud for how she remained unique up until the end.
“I never wanted to conform,” she wrote.
“I haven’t conformed. I’ve tried, but I couldn’t. I’ve never put a label on myself. I find it distasteful that people put labels on other people and say that’s who they are, that one thing.
“When I was forty-six, people said I was in middle age. I shrugged off that designation. I didn’t want to be lumped into a group.”
We send our condolences to the friends, family members and loved ones of Cloris Leachman.
May she rest in peace.