Tony award-winning actress Elizabeth Franz has died after a devastating health battle, and fans have flocked to social media to pay tribute to the iconic actress
Elizabeth Franz, best known for roles including Mia in Gilmore Girls and for iconic stage performances in Death of a Salesman on Broadway, has died aged 84.
The actress’ husband, screenwriter Christopher Pelham, confirmed that she died on 4 November, after a battle with cancer. Elizabeth, who made her first appearance on stage in 1967, won a Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Play.
The star’s first job was as a secretary, which she did until she had earned enough money to attend the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. After graduating, she appeared in a number of stage productions, as well as TV roles.
Notably, she played Mia Bass in Gilmore Girls, the owner of the Independence Inn, who was a mother figure and mentor to Lorelai (Lauren Graham) when she ran away to Stars Hollow.
On stage, Elizabeth was in Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead, as well as productions of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors, and Dickens’ Great Expectations.
In 1999, she took on Linda Loman in the 50th anniversary production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. It was for this role that she won her Tony.
Miller himself praised her performance, saying she had achieved what many other actresses had not. He said: “[Elizabeth] has discovered in the role the basic underlying powerful protectiveness, which comes out as fury, and that in the past, in every performance I know of, was simply washed out.”
Elizabeth played the same role a year later in a production aired on Showtime, which earned her an Emmy nomination. Elsewhere on screen, she played Alma Rudder on Another World and Helen Wendall on As the World Turns. She was also Bev Scheel in Christmas with the Kranks.
Following her death, fans have flooded X with tributes to the actress. One said: “Such a beautiful woman RIP Elizabeth.” Another added that she would be “forever in our hearts”.
One X user said: “#RIP Elizabeth Franz. She injected fire and intimacy into her turn as Linda Loman opposite Brian Dennehy in ‘Death of a Salesman.’”
Source: Mirror
Leave a Reply