Audra Marie Lindley

 Audra Marie Lindley (September 24, 1918 – October 16, 1997)

Lindley was most famous for her role as landlady Helen Roper on the sitcom Three's Company and its spin-off, The Ropers. She got her early start in Hollywood by being a stand-in, which eventually progressed to stunt work, and eventually became a contract player with Warner Brothers. In 1943, she went to New York in her mid-20s to work in theater. Among her many Broadway plays during her long career were: On Golden Pond, Long Day's Journey into Night, and Horse Heavens. After a break from acting to raise five children, she began to make steady appearances on television in the early 1960s, including the role of Sue Knowles on the CBS soap opera Search for Tomorrow, and a six-year stint as manipulative "Aunt Liz" Matthews on the NBC soap opera Another World. She also had regular roles as Meredith Baxter's mother in the sitcom Bridget Loves Bernie, as well as Lee Grant’s best friend in Fay.

Her greatest fame arrived when she began playing the wisecracking, perpetually unfulfilled and sexually frustrated Helen Roper on the hit sitcom Three’s Company (1977) where she wore a wig to maintain the character’s exaggerated hairstyle. The character and her husband, Mr. Roper (played by Norman Fell), were spun off to their own show, The Ropers (1979), which was not a success. Lindley garnered further parts of all sizes in various TV films and series, including playing Phoebe Buffay's grandmother on Friends, and her last, a recurring role as Cybill Shepherd's mother on the CBS sitcom Cybill. Audra Lindley died from leukemia at age 79 in 1997, and is buried at Woodlawn Memorial Park in Santa Monica. She is buried with her father, Bert Lindley, but her name doesn't appear on the marker.