Five-Time Emmy Nominee Georgia Engel Passes Away
Georgia Engel, best known for her portrayal of Georgette on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and its [...]
Georgia Engel, best known for her portrayal of Georgette on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and its spinoff Rhoda, has passed away. She was 70 years old. Engel, who also had notable runs on Passions, Everybody Loves Raymond, Coach, and Hot in Cleveland, died on Friday in Princeton, New Jersey, according to a statement released to the New York Times by her friend and executor, John Quilty. According to Quilty, the cause of death was unknown as yet because, as a Christian Scientist, the actress did not consult doctors. Engel's distinctive voice and comic timing made her a consistent presence in Hollywood for almost 50 years. Her most recent role as a small part on One Day At A Time, the fan-favorite Netflix series that has been cancelled and is reportedly seeking a new home.
During Engel's long career, she also had parts on The Love Boat, Mork and Mindy, and The Office, among others. Her instantly-recognizable and sweet-sounding voice gave her an "in" to do some voice work over the years, landing her roles on Hey Arnold!, and in the Open Season movies, among others. During that time, she earned five Emmy nominations -- two for her role as Georgette on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and three more decades later for playing Pat MacDougall, the mother-in-law of Brad Garrett's character on Everybody Loves Raymond. She also did a one-off parody of her Mary Tyler Moore character on a surprisingly meta '90s sitcom on Nick at Nite called Hi, Honey, I'm Home.
Born in 1948, Engel was a dancer, earned a theater degree at the University of Hawaii, and appeared as a replacement actor near the end of the Broadway run of Hello, Dolly! Despite her screen success, she would never fully leave the stage, appearing on and off Broadway in recent years for productions like Drowsy Chaperone, Middletown, and John.
"It was only going to be one episode," Engel said of her Mary Tyler Moore Show role in a 2007 interview with The Toronto Star. "and I was just supposed to have a few lines in a party scene, but they kept giving me more and more to do." The chemistry between Engel and Ted Knight, who played the buffoonish weatherman Ted Baxter, was undeniable, and the pair were married off in the show's sixth season.
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