Saturday, October 26, 2013

R.I.P.: Comedic Actress Marcia Wallace

Marcia Wallace, the voice of The Simpsons' Edna Krabappel who earlier played the quick-witted receptionist on The Bob Newhart Show, has died.

She was 70, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

According to TMZ, her son Mikey has confirmed that pneumonia complications were to blame for her devastating death, not cancer - which she previously fought (and won) back in the 1980s. 

"I was tremendously saddened to learn this morning of the passing of the brilliant and gracious Marcia Wallace. She was beloved by all at The Simpsons and we intend to retire her irreplaceable character," said Simpsons executive producer Al Jean in a statement.

Jean addressed a storyline that was previously teased about killing off a character on the show and noted that this was not associated with Wallace.

"Earlier we had discussed a potential storyline in which a character passed away. This was not Marcia's Edna Krabappel. Marcia's passing is unrelated and again, a terrible loss for all who had the pleasure of knowing her," Jean wrote.

"Cheers to the hilarious, kind, fab Marcia Wallace, who has taken her leave of us. Heaven is now a much funnier place b/c of you, Marcia," Yeardley Smith, who voices Lisa Simpson, wrote on Twitter on Saturday morning.

Wallace won an Emmy Award for her voice work as Ms. Krabappel in the 1992 Simpsons episode "Bart the Lover." After the elementary school teacher gives Bart a month of detention, he gets his revenge by responding to her newspaper singles ad. That was her 10th of 177 episodes on the series.

On Newhart, which aired on CBS from 1972 to 1978, Wallace played Carol Kester, the wise-cracking, independent receptionist in a Chicago high rise that housed the offices of psychologist Bob Hartley (Newhart) and orthodontist Jerry Robinson (Peter Bonerz). She was in 139 of the show's 142 episodes.

In a 1994 episode of CBS' Murphy Brown, Wallace played Candice Bergin's secretary. Newhart shows up in character and begs her to come back to work for him in Chicago. Wallace received an Emmy nomination for the guest-starring appearance.

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