Actress Audra Lindley, best known as the sex-starved Mrs. Roper in the ABC sitcom “Three’s Company,” died Oct. 16 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center of complications from leukemia. She was 79.
Born in Los Angeles on Sept. 24, 1918, Lindley was a mainstay of several daytime TV soap operas in the 1950s and ’60s, including “Search for Tomorrow” and “Another World.”
In “Three’s Company,” she played the wife of landlord Stanley Roper, played by Norman Fell. The couple appeared in a short-lived spinoff, “The Ropers.”
“Three’s Company” brought her a second Golden Globe nomination: she earlier had been nominated for the sitcom “Bridget Loves Bernie.”
On Broadway, Lindley appeared in “The Young and the Fair” with Julie Harris, “Take Her, She’s Mine” with Art Carney, “A Case of Libel” with Van Heflin, and “Spofford” with Melvyn Douglas.
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Feature film credits include “Taking Off,” “The Heartbreak Kid,” “Desert Hearts,” “Cannery Row,” “Best Friends,” “Spellbinder” and “Troop Beverly Hills.”
She recently acted in “Sudden Death” for Universal and “The Relic” for Paramount, both directed by Peter Hyams. On TV, she played Phoebe’s grandmother on NBC’s “Friends” and Cybill’s mother on the CBS sitcom “Cybill.”
Regional theater credits included “Handy Dandy” (co-starring with then-husband James Whitmore), “Elba,” “On Golden Pond” and “The Magnificent Yankee.”
Lindley is survived by two daughters and a son.
Family suggests donations in her name be sent to the American Red Cross.
