Jill Clayburgh Dies at 66

Two-time Oscar nominee Jill Clayburgh died Friday at her home in Connecticut of complications from chronic leukemia, the New York Times reports.

The 66-year-old struggled with the disease for more than two decades.

Her husband, playwright David Rabe, said she faced her illness with courage, turning it into “an opportunity for her children to grow and be human.” She is reportedly survived by three children.

Clayburgh portrayed family matriarch Letitia Darling on the ABC series ‘Dirty Sexy Money,’ (co-starring Lucy Liu and Peter Krause), which ran for two seasons and ended last year.

Clayburgh, alongside such peers as Anne Bancroft, Shirley MacLaine and Jane Fonda, helped to usher in a new era for actresses in Hollywood by playing women who were confident and capable yet not completely flawless. Her dramatic turn as a divorcee exploring her sexuality after 16 years of marriage in “An Unmarried Woman” earned Clayburgh her first Oscar nod.

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Jill Clayburgh Dies at 66

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