Veteran actress Alice Hirson, who played Ellen DeGeneres‘ mom on her eponymous 1990s sitcom and Mavis Anderson on Dallas, has died. She was 95.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hirson’s son, David Hirson, confirmed she died of natural causes at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, on Friday, February 14. She had been at the assisted living facility for about a year.
Born on March 10, 1929, in New York City, Hirson graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1948 and began her acting career on the off-Broadway stage before landing roles in the Broadway plays Traveller Without Luggage and The Investigation in the 1960s.
Her first TV role came on Starlight Theatre in 1951, but it wasn’t until the 1960s that she became a regular face on television. From 1969 to 1970, she played Stephanie Martin on the CBS daytime soap opera The Edge of Night. She went on to star as Marcia Davis on Another World and its spinoff Somerset from 1970 to 1972.
Hirson’s soap opera career continued from 1972 to 1976 when she starred as Eileen Riley Siegel on ABC’s One Life to Live. She also had a recurring role on General Hospital in 1982.
One of her most memorable recurring roles came in Dallas from 1982 to 1988, where she played Miss Ellie’s best friend, Mavis Anderson. She also made her mark as Ellen’s ditzy mom, Lois Morgan, on Ellen from 1994 to 1998.
Her other credits included Maude, The Waltons, St. Elsewhere, Matlock, Full House, Law & Order, Murphy Brown, Loving, 7th Heaven, NYPD Blue, Just Shoot Me, and The Secret Life of the American Teenager. More recently, she appeared in a 2019 episode of the Will & Grace reboot and provided a voice for the Netflix animated series Trash Truck.
On the big screen, she appeared in the films Nightwing, Private Benjamin, Revenge of the Nerds, The Big Picture, The Glass House, and The Lost.
Hirson was married to and later divorced actor Roger O. Hirson and was preceded in death by her second husband, actor Stephen Elliott, in 2005. She is survived by her two children with Roger O. Hirson and a grandchild.