Sada Thompson dies at 83; stage and TV actress known for playing matriarch on 'Family' [View All]

Sada Thompson dies at 83; stage and TV actress known for playing matriarch on 'Family'



The actress won an Emmy for her role as Kate Lawrence on the 1970s dramatic series set in Pasadena. She won a Tony for playing four roles, a mother and her daughters, in 'Twigs.'

Sada Thompson, a Tony Award-winning actress best known to TV viewers for her Emmy Award-winning role as the matriarch in the 1970s dramatic TV series "Family," has died. She was 83.

Thompson, a resident of Southbury, Conn., died of lung disease Wednesday at Danbury Hospital, said her son-in-law, Tony Sgueglia.

Once described by New York Times theater critic Walter Kerr as "one of the American theater's finest actresses," Thompson won a Tony for best actress in a play in 1972 for George Furth's comedy "Twigs," in which she played four different roles — a mother and her three daughters — in four linked sketches.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-sada-thompson-20110507,0,3069981.story