Shannon Wilcox, Actress in ‘Songwriter,’ ‘Six Weeks’ and ‘Dallas,’ Dies at 80

Shannon Wilcox, a personality actress who appeared alongside Willie Nelson in Songwriter, with Dudley Moore in Six Weeks and reverse Al Pacino in Frankie and Johnny, has died. She was 80.

Wilcox died Sept. 2 in Los Angeles, her daughter, actress-director Kelli Williams — she performed legal professional Lindsay Dole on The Observe — instructed The Hollywood Reporter.

A life member of The Actors Studio, Wilcox additionally portrayed the mom of Elisabeth Shue’s Ali Mills in John G. Avildsen’s The Karate Child (1994) and labored in lots of different notable movies, amongst them Tony Richardson’s The Border (1982), Ivan Reitman’s Authorized Eagles (1986), Mark Rydell’s For the Boys (1991) and David Fincher’s Seven (1995).

Wilcox was the resigned ex-wife of Nelson’s Doc Jenkins in Alan Rudolph’s Songwriter (1984) and the spouse of a California politician (Moore) caught up with a girl (Mary Tyler Moore) and her sickly little one (Katherine Healy) in Tony Invoice’s Six Weeks (1982). And in Garry Marshall’s Frankie and Johnny (1991), she performed a prostitute employed by Pacino’s lonely character to spend the night time.

Marshall would hold her busy over time, additionally placing her in Exit to Eden (1994), Expensive God (1996), The Different Sister (1999), Runaway Bride (1999), The Princess Diaries (2001) and its 2004 sequel and Elevating Helen (2004).

Born Mary Kay Wilcox in Ohio, she was raised on a farm in Indiana along with her siblings, Bob, Caudie and Janny. She attended highschool and faculty in Boulder, Colorado, earlier than transferring to Paris to turn out to be a dancer. She in the end settled in Los Angeles and began her profession as an actress.

Wilcox made her onscreen debut on a 1976 episode of Starsky & Hutch and appeared on such different reveals as Kaz, Hawaii 5-O, Household and Hart to Hart earlier than touchdown her first film, the Mac Davis-starring Cheaper to Maintain Her (1980).

In 1981, she was among the many inaugural group of actors and filmmakers invited by Sydney Pollack to check on the Sundance Institute.

She portrayed the ex-wife of a Texas surgeon performed by Dennis Weaver — she nonetheless loves him however needed to go away him as a result of he was simply too centered on his work — on the 1987-88 ABC drama Buck James, however that present lasted simply 19 episodes.

On Dallas in 1990, she recurred on the two-part finale of the thirteenth season and on the primary three episodes of the 14th season in a unbroken story arc that had J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) caught in a psychiatric hospital.

Wilcox additionally appeared on episodes of Remington Steele, Cagney & Lacey, Magnum, P.I., L.A. Regulation, NCIS: Los Angeles and Gray’s Anatomy and in movies together with Hollywood Harry (1986) and There Goes My Child (1994).

She and Williams performed mom and daughter on the 2004 Hallmark Channel telefilm A Boyfriend for Christmas.

Wilcox “was fast to snicker, lit up each room she entered and liked touring and making associates all around the world,” her daughter mentioned. “She spoke French, Spanish and Italian. One in all her biggest passions was dancing tango and salsa, which she continued to do fantastically effectively into her 70s. Her dance card was at all times full.”

Wilcox was married to plastic surgeon John Williams from 1965 till their 1984 divorce and to Godfather actor and Emmy winner Alex Rocco from 2005 till his July 2015 demise at age 79.

Along with her daughter and brother, survivors embody her son, Sean Doyle, a author and producer, and grandchildren Kiran, Sarame and Ravi. A personal celebration of life is being held in her honor this month.