Elizabeth Franz, Tony-winning 'Death of a Salesman' actor, dies at 84

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Theater veteran Elizabeth Franz, who won a Tony Award for her bold reinvention as the wife of the everyman title character in the 1999 Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman,” has died.She was 84.

The actor died Nov.4 at her home in Woodbury, Conn., after a battle with cancer, her husband, screenwriter Christopher Pelham, told the New York Times.

Pelham also told the outlet that Franz’s cause of death was cancer and a severe reaction to the medication being used to treat her.The Ohio-born actor’s take on Linda Loman, the wife of Brian Dennehy’s Willy Loman, in the 50th anniversary production of “Death of a Salesman,” was a departure from the character’s usual defeated energy that took even playwright Miller by surprise: “She discovered in the role the basic underlying powerful protectiveness, which comes out as fury, and that in the past, in every performance I know of, was simply washed out,” Miller said in a 1999 interview.The production, which originated at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre before Broadway, eventually made its way to L.A.’s Ahmanson Theatre.

Entertainment & Arts Actor Sally Kirkland has died at 84.The Golden Globe winner and Oscar nominee for the 1987 movie ‘Anna’ had gone into hospice care over the weekend.Alongside Dennehy, Franz later reprised the role of Linda in Showtime’s TV adaptation of the play in 2000, which earned her an Emmy Award nomination.She previously received a Tony nom in 1983 for her turn as Matthew Broderick’s onstage mother in Neil Simon’s “Brighton Beach Memoirs.” And later earned another nod in 2002 for “Morning’s at Seven,” in which she played the youngest of four Midwest sisters.

Her other stage credits include “The Cherry Orchard,” “The Cemetery Club” and — in her final role on Broadway in 2010 — “The Miracle Worker.” Franz’s TV credits included ...