Simpsons Actress Marcia Wallace Passes Away

Comedienne Marcia Wallace, best known as Mrs. Krabappel from The Simpsons, has died at the age of 70. 

“She passed at 9 PM last night due to complications from breast cancer of which she was a long and proud survivor and advocate for women and healing,” Wallace’s friend Cathryn Michon told Deadline. “Ironically it was during breast cancer awareness month during which she was always a funny ray of hope for so many. I’m devastated.”

Wallace was a fantastic comedienne and character actor who brought The Simpsons’ Edna Krabappel (as well as the Cat Lady) to life for over twenty years.  But Wallace had an incredible career starting with an appearance on Bewitched and ending with an upcoming film by Michon, Muffin Top: A Love Story. Here’s just a few shows/films she made notable appearances on:

• The Bob Newhart Show
• ALF
• Teen Witch
• Charles in Charge
• Darkwing Duck
• Captain Planet and the Planeteers
• Full House
• Murphy Brown
• 7th Heaven

Simpsons’ creators had been talking about a character death recently and although everyone was aware of Wallace’s condition, producer Al Jean confirmed it was not Mrs. Krabappel they were discussing. “[Wallace] was beloved by all at The Simpsons and we intend to retire her irreplaceable character,” he said, “Earlier we had discussed a potential storyline in which a character passed away. This was not Marcia’s Edna Krabappel. Marcia’s passing is unrelated and again, a terrible loss for all who had the pleasure of knowing her.”

Wallace was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1985 and soon became an avid speaker and educator on the subject. She wrote an autobiography in 2004 called Don’t Look Back, We’re Not Going That Way, which detailed her experiences. Wallace also won an Emmy for her work on The Simpsons.

Writer Nell Scovell wrote on Twitter, “In the 70s, Marcia Wallace made it cool for women to be funny. She was my hero before she became my friend.”

(via Deadline)

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Jill Pantozzi

Jill Pantozzi is a pop-culture journalist and host who writes about all things nerdy and beyond! She’s Editor in Chief of the geek girl culture site The Mary Sue (Abrams Media Network), and hosts her own blog “Has Boobs, Reads Comics” (TheNerdyBird.com). She co-hosts the Crazy Sexy Geeks podcast along with superhero historian Alan Kistler, contributed to a book of essays titled “Chicks Read Comics,” (Mad Norwegian Press) and had her first comic book story in the IDW anthology, “Womanthology.” In 2012, she was featured on National Geographic’s "Comic Store Heroes," a documentary on the lives of comic book fans and the following year she was one of many Batman fans profiled in the documentary, "Legends of the Knight."

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