Audra Lindley

Life and career Audra Lindley was born in Los Angeles, California, on September 24, 1918.

Lindley began acting on Broadway in 1942, portraying Judy Garrett in Comes the Revelation.

In 1971, she starred in Taking Off, the first American film of Miloš Forman.

She was nominated twice for a Golden Globe Award, in 1973 for her role in Bridget Loves Bernie and in 1979 for her role in Three's Company.

Lindley continued to appear steadily on television and in films, such as Revenge of the Stepford Wives in 1980 and as Fauna, the owner of a brothel in the 1982 film Cannery Row. In 1982, she appeared in the film Best Friends, starring Goldie Hawn and Burt Reynolds.

She played a supporting role in the lesbian-themed film Desert Hearts (1985). In 1987, she had another supporting role as Judith Light's mother in the TV movie Stamp of a Killer. She also appeared in 1989's Troop Beverly Hills as outspoken director of the Wilderness Girls. Also in 1989, she was the main character of an episode of the horror anthology series Tales from the Crypt.

In 1991, she starred in an episode of the horror anthology series The Hidden Room.

In 1995, she played Phoebe Buffay's grandmother, Frances, on Friends and appeared in the movie Sudden Death.

In 1997, some of her last roles include an episode of Nothing Sacred, the TV movie Sisters and Other Strangers, and the theatrical movie The Relic.

Her final role was as Virginia Sheridan, a recurring part as Cybill Shepherd's character's mother on the sitcom Cybill (having previously also played Shepherd's on-screen mother in the 1972 film The Heartbreak Kid). A later episode of Cybill was dedicated to her.

Personal life and death She was married to Hardy Ulm, with whom she had five children, from 1943 until his death in 1970. She was then married to actor James Whitmore from 1972 to 1979.

Lindley died of complications from leukemia on October 16, 1997, at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. She was 79.

Partial filmography