Jill Clayburgh has died (April 30, 1944 November 5, 2010)
(HMG Celebrity News) – Oscar-nominated actress Jill Clayburgh, known for portraying strong, independent women, died on Friday at her home in Lakeville, Conn. after a 21-year battle with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Her husband, Tony Award-winning playwright David Rabe, whom she married in in 1979, announced Clayburgh died Friday surrounded by her family at her home in Lakeville, Conn. She was 66. Clayburgh was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for 1978′s An Unmarried Woman, for which she won the “Best Actress Award” at the Cannes Film Festival, and for 1979′s Starting Over, a comedy with Burt Reynolds. She also received strong notices for a dramatic performance in I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can. I personally enjoyed her appearance in Silver Streak, with Gene Wilder. Despite her chronic illness she still continued to act until the last few years with guest appearances in the series Nip/Tuck in 2005. And in 2006, she appeared on Broadway in Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park with Patrick Wilson and Amanda Peet. She also returned to the screen as a therapist’s eccentric wife in the all-star ensemble dramedy Running With Scissors. During 2007, Clayburgh appeared in the ABC television series Dirty Sexy Money, playing Letitia Darling. Clayburgh is survived by Rabe, and a son, Michael and daughter, actress Lily Rabe.
