Elizabeth Hoffman, the Mom Bea on ‘Sisters,’ Dies at 97

Elizabeth Hoffman, who portrayed Beatrice Reed Ventnor, the mom of the daughters performed by Swoosie Kurtz, Sela Ward, Patricia Kalember and Julianne Phillips throughout the complete six-season run of the NBC drama Sisters, has died. She was 97.

Hoffman died Aug. 21 of pure causes at her dwelling in Malibu, her son Chris informed The Hollywood Reporter.

Hoffman stood out as Eleanor Roosevelt within the 1983 and 1988-89 Herman Wouk miniseries The Winds of Warfare and Warfare and Remembrance, directed by Dan Curtis and starring Robert Mitchum.

She additionally portrayed Meryl Streep’s mother in Curtis Hanson’s The River Wild (1994) and the aged Ruth, the mother-in-law of Linda Hamilton’s character who lives in a cabin on the base of the volcano, in Roger Donaldson’s Dante’s Peak (1997).

Hoffman’s depressed Bea units Sisters in movement when her 4 daughters reunite to look after her after she turns to alcohol to cope with her husband’s demise and sells the household dwelling. The actress appeared on 87 of the collection’ 128 episodes from 1991-96, and throughout the run of the present, Bea will lose one other husband and a fifth daughter will emerge.

Born on Feb. 8, 1926, in Corvallis, Oregon, Hoffman did a number of theater within the San Fernando Valley earlier than she made her onscreen debut in 1980 as Miss Mason on the primary of her three appearances on Little Home on the Prairie.

She recurred as Decide Mary Russell on 5 episodes of Matlock in 1989-90 and as Dr. Catherine Langford on two episodes of Stargate SG-1 in 1997-98.

Her résumé additionally included work within the movies Worry No Evil (1981), Nuts (1987) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989) and on tv in The Biggest American Hero, The A-Workforce, Hunter, L.A. Legislation, Star Trek: The Subsequent Technology and Thirtysomething.

For the theater, Hoffman appeared in a number of Tennessee Williams performs and portrayed a lady who takes in a younger Jewish lady in Diane Samuels’ Kindertransport.

Along with Chris, survivors embrace one other son, Paul, and her grandchildren, Erica, Alison, Lauren and Lily.

“I’ve simply been so privileged,” she mentioned in a 2006 interview. “I hope that I’ve infused this stuff with as a lot honesty as I may convey. I’ve at all times labored towards that purpose.”