Veteran US actress Florence Henderson, best known as Carol Brady in The Brady Bunch, has died aged 82.
She died surrounded by family and friends, her manager, Kayla Pressman, said in a statement.
One of America’s all-time favourite TV mothers, Henderson played the Brady matriarch from 1969 until 1974.
It was a role she revived in spin-offs and sequels including The Brady Bunch Hour, The Brady Brides, The Bradys, plus Brady-esque appearances in The Brady Bunch Movie and alongside on-screen son Christopher Knight in the reality series My Fair Brady.
But it was one that would be identified with her forever in the hearts of millions of Americans.
“I played Carol as the mother I always wished I had,” she once said, “as the mother a lot of people wished they had.”
In his book Growing Up Brady, on-screen son Barry Williams recalled having a crush on his co-star and the dinner date she graciously accepted.
There were numerous other TV credits including The Love Boat, Murder She Wrote, Fantasy Island, Police Squad, Hart to Hart, Medical Center, Roseanne, Ally McBeal, Hercules, Ellen, The King of Queens, The Cleveland Show, 30 Rock, and Happily Divorced.
She competed on Dancing with the Stars which premiered in 2010 and began hosting her own cooking show, Who’s Cooking with Florence Henderson in 2013. In 1962 she was the first woman to guest host The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
Film credits included Song of Norway, Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult, Holy Man, For Heaven’s Sake, Young One and Fifty Shades of Black
A gifted soprano, she also had a Broadway career with credits including Carousel, Oklahoma!, South Pacific, Fanny, The Girl Who Came to Supper, The King and I, Annie Get Your Gun and Bells Are Ringing.
Henderson continued to work in her final year with an upcoming role in Grandmothers Murder Club (2017).
Source: Entertainment Weekly