Actress Bonnie Franklin, known to TV fans as divorced mom Ann Romano on the ’70s sitcom “One Day at a Time,” has died at age 69. Her family says her death was due to complications from pancreatic cancer, which Franklin revealed she was battling back in September.
Franklin earned Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for her lead role on “One Day at a Time,” the groundbreaking 1975-1984 comedy from producer Norman Lear which tackled hard-hitting issues like sexual harrassment, suicide, and premarital sex. The show was a Top 20 hit and made stars of Franklin and her TV daughters, Mackenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli. In 2011, Franklin and Bertinelli reunited on the latter’s TV Land sitcom “Hot in Cleveland.”
Born in Santa Monica in 1944, Franklin made her TV debut on “The Colgate Comedy Hour” at age 9. She earned a Tony nomination in 1970 for her work on the Broadway musical “Applause,” and guest starred on “Gidget” and “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” before landing her signature role on “One Day.” In that show’s final season, Franklin stepped behind the camera to direct a pair of episodes, and went on to helm episodes of “Charles in Charge” and “The Munsters Today.”
In recent years, Franklin went back to the theater, working with Los Angeles-area theater groups to produce staged readings for students; she also played a nun on the CBS soap “The Young and the Restless” earlier this year. Franklin was married to producer Marvin Minoff for 29 years, until his death in 2009. She had no children.
(source–yahoo.com)
