Georgia Engel Dies: 5-Time Emmy Nominee For Mary Tyler Moore Show & Everybody Loves Raymond Was 70

April 15, 2019 6:47pm

Georgia Engel, who earned two Emmy noms for playing Ted Baxters significant other Georgette Franklin on The Mary Tyler Moore and three consecutive for Everybody Loves Raymond, has died. She was 70. She died Friday in Princeton, NJ, her friend and executor John Quilty told The New York Times.

Engel joined The Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1972 when it was a top 10 primetime series and would appear in nearly 60 episodes over its final five seasons. Her dim but well-meaning Georgette was the love interest of self-important anchorman Baxter (Ted Knight), who courted and eventually her during the November 1975 sweep — though he didnt seem all that prepared for it. They went on to adopt a child and later had one of their own.

The role earned her back-to-back Emmy noms for Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 1976 and 77.

“Georgia Engel was a comedy machine,” Mary Tyler Moore Show co-creator James L. Brooks told the TV Academys The Interviews series. “She was a great character, a great addition to the show. She as much as any actor Ive ever worked with, when shes talking people lean forward — just reaching for her words.”

Engel also appeared as Georgette in a couple of episode of spinoff series Rhoda and later was a regular — in a different role as the title stars ditzy best pal — on CBS The Betty White Show (1977-78).

She also was a series regular on the single-season ABC comedy Goodtime Girls in 1980 and the nets 1983-84 sitcom Jennifer Slept Here and recurred as Shirley Burleigh on Coach from 1991-97.

During that era, Engel also guested on such shows as The Love Boat, Mork & Mindy and Fantasy Island. She also did voice work on such toon series as The Care Bears, Hercules, and Hey Read More – Source

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