Ann Wedgeworth

 Ann Wedgeworth (January 21, 1934 - November 16, 2017)

She was known for her roles as Lana Shields in Three's Company and Merleen Elldridge in Evening Shade. Wedgeworth won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play for Chapter Two (1978). Wedgeworth had supporting roles in many movies. She had the female leading role opposite Gene Hackman in the 1973 film Scarecrow. She later co-starred in Bang the Drum Slowly, Law and Disorder, One Summer Love, and Thieves. In 1977, she won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Handle with Care. Wedgeworth received her second National Society of Film Critics Award for her performance as Patsy Cline's mother in Sweet Dreams starring Jessica Lange and Ed Harris in 1985. Throughout the 1980s, Wedgworth had many supporting roles, often playing mothers, such as in No Small Affair, as Jon Cryer's mother, and in 1987's Made in Heaven as a mother unknowingly reunited with her dead son. In 1989, she portrayed Aunt Fern in Steel Magnolias. She appeared as Sissy Spacek's character's mother in the 1991 film Hard Promises. She also appeared in two films opposite Renée Zellweger: Love and a .45 and The Whole Wide World. Wedgworth had her final film role in The Hawk Is Dying, with Paul Giamatti, which opened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006. In early years, Wedgeworth had main roles on the daytime soap operas. She played the roles of Angela 'Angie' Talbot on The Edge of Night from 1966 to 1967, and later joined the cast of Another World as Lahoma Vane Lucas. She played the role from 1967 to 1970, and from 1970 to 1973 appeared on its spinoff, Somerset. In 1979, Wedgeworth was cast as divorcée Lana Shields on the hit ABC sitcom Three's Company. Her character was brought on the show to fill the void left by Audra Lindley, who had left to star in the show's spin-off, The Ropers. According to behind-the-scene reports, the addition of Lana to the cast caused tension between series star John Ritter and the show's writers.

In 1982, Wedgeworth worked with Linda Bloodworth-Thomason in her first comedy series, Filthy Rich, playing ditsy, good-natured Bootsie Westchester. In 1989, she guest-starred as Audrey Conner, the emotionally fragile mother of Dan Conner (played by John Goodman) on the ABC sitcom, Roseanne. Her longest role was on the CBS sitcom Evening Shade as Merleen Eldridge. The series aired from 1990 to 1994. In 1994, Wedgeworth starred in the unsuccessful Evening Shade spin-off, Harlan & Merleen. Wedgeworth died on November 16, 2017, aged 83.