Bonnie Franklin, 'One Day at a Time' Star, Dead at 69
Bonnie Franklin, the Golden Globe- and Emmy-nominated actress who played Ann Romano in the CBS hit sitcom "One Day at a Time," died Friday at her home. She was 69.
News broke in September that Franklin had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She was surrounded by family and friends at the time of her death, an individual familiar with the situation told TheWrap
Born in Santa Monica, Calif., in 1944, Franklin first appeared on television at age nine, in "The Colgate Comedy Hour," and made her Broadway debut in 1970 in "Applause." She also had a semi-regular role on ABC's "Gidget."
Also read: Hollywood Says Goodbye: Notable Celebrity Deaths of 2012 But it was the sitcom "One Day at a Time," which ran on CBS from 1975 to 1984, that made Franklin a star.
The series was somewhat groundbreaking for its time; Franklin played a divorced mother of two struggling to raise her two daughters (played by Mackenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli) on her own. During the course of the show's run, it tackled such subjects as premarital sex, teenage runaways and suicide.
Also read: Dale Robertson, Star of Movie and TV Westerns, Dead at 89
The show itself was not without its own internal drama; Phillips was fired from the series in 1980, due to alcohol and drug struggles that made her unreliable. Invited back the following year after undergoing treatment, she relapsed and was fired again. Franklin appeared sporadically on television following "One Day at a Time." In 2011, she reunited with Bertinelli for a guest appearance on TV Land's "Hot in Cleveland," and last year she appeared on "The Young and the Restless" as Sister Celeste.
Married twice, her second marriage, to producer Marvin Minoff, lasted from 1980 until Minoff's death in 2009. She is survived by her mother, Claire Franklin, as well as her stepchildren Jed and Julie, her grandchildren Maya and Natasha, and her sister and brothers-in-law.
A private memorial will be held next week. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to CCAP, a nonprofit organization started by Franklin and her sister Judy Bush to introduce and implement great American plays into inner city schools' curriculum.
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