Ann Wedgeworth

NY Times Obituary

Ann Wedgeworth, who won a Tony in 1978 for her performance in Neil Simon’s comedy “Chapter Two” and played an amorous divorced woman on the ABC sitcom “Three’s Company,” died on Nov. 16 in North Bergen, N.J. She was 83.

Her death, at a care facility, was confirmed by her daughter Diánna Martin.

Recognizable by her thick russet hair and soft Texas accent, Ms. Wedgeworth often played characters who were flirtatious, maternal or a combination of both. She appeared on Broadway and in films like the female ensemble comedy-drama “Steel Magnolias” (1989) and the baseball drama “Bang the Drum Slowly” (1973), with Robert De Niro and Michael Moriarty.

She also played recurring characters on two CBS sitcoms, the short-lived “Filthy Rich” and the long-running “Evening Shade,” and soap operas, like “Another World.”

Ms. Wedgeworth was introduced on “Three’s Company” in 1979 as Lana Shields, an older woman who unsuccessfully pursued John Ritter’s character, Jack Tripper, a single man who shared an apartment with two women, played by Joyce DeWitt and Suzanne Somers. It was never clear why Mr. Ritter’s libidinous character refused her advances, and she soon left the show.

Ms. Wedgeworth played the confidante of a recently divorced woman, played by Anita Gillette, in “Chapter Two,” Mr. Simon’s semi-autobiographical play about two people (Ms. Gillette and Judd Hirsch) returning to romance after the end of long relationships. It opened in 1977 and ran for two years. Critics praised her acting.

“As Faye, Ann Wedgeworth is better than perfect,” Jack Kroll of Newsweek wrote in his review in 1977. “She moves like Isadora Duncan, has the comic timing of Jack Benny, the forlorn sweetness of Marilyn Monroe, the wise innocence of Judy Holliday.”

Ms. Wedgeworth won the 1978 Tony for best featured actress for her performance, her sixth on Broadway, but it would be her last.

Elizabeth Ann Wedgeworth was born on Jan. 21, 1934, in Abilene, Tex., to Cortus and Elizabeth Wedgeworth.

She met her fellow actor Rip Torn while studying theater at the University of Texas, Austin, and they married shortly after graduation and moved to New York. Ms. Wedgeworth studied with Sanford Meisner at the Actors Studio before making her Broadway debut in the comedy “Make a Million” in 1958.

She also appeared on Broadway in James Baldwin’s drama “Blues for Mister Charlie” (1964), in a cast that also included Mr. Torn, and Herb Gardner’s comedy “Thieves” a decade later. Her Off Broadway credits included Sam Shepard’s “A Lie of the Mind” in 1985.

She was also in the 1977 film version of “Thieves” and in “Scarecrow” (1973), with Gene Hackman and Al Pacino, among other movies.

Ms. Wedgeworth and Mr. Torn divorced, and in 1970 she married Ernie Martin, an acting teacher, with whom she lived in Manhattan. In addition to him and her daughter Diánna, she is survived by a daughter from her first marriage, Danae Torn, and two stepsons, Michael and Gregg Martin.