Elizabeth Franz has passed away at the age of 84.
The actress’s husband, screenwriter Christopher Pelham, confirmed now that she had died on November 4 following a cancer battle.
Elizabeth, who first graced the stage in 1967, secured a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play.
The performer initially worked as a secretary until she saved sufficient funds to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Following her graduation, she featured in numerous theatrical roles alongside television productions.
Most memorably, she portrayed Mia Bass in Gilmore Girls – the Independence Inn proprietor who served as a maternal figure and guide to Lorelai (Lauren Graham) after her escape to Stars Hollow.
As per the Mirror, on the theatrical stage, Elizabeth appeared in Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead, as well as productions of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors and Dickens’ Great Expectations.
In 1999, she took on the role of Linda Loman in the 50th anniversary staging of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman for which she earned the Tony Award.
Miller himself lauded her portrayal, stating she had accomplished what numerous other actresses had failed to achieve.
He remarked: “[Elizabeth] has discovered in the role the basic underlying powerful protectiveness, which comes out as fury, and that in the past, in every performance I know of, was simply washed out.”
Elizabeth reprised the same role a year later in a Showtime production, which bagged her an Emmy nomination too.
