'Maude' Star Bill Macy Dies at 97

Actor Bill Macy, who is remembered for his six-season stint opposite Bea Arthur in Norman Lear sitcom Maude died last night in Los Angeles. Macy's death was announced on Facebook by his producer and manager Matt Beckoff, who said: "My buddy Bill Macy passed away at 7:13pm tonight. He was a spitfire right up to the end. My condolences to his beautiful wife Samantha Harper Macy."

Macy was 97 years old.

Spun-off from All in the Family, Maude aired on CBS from 1972 to 1978, rating as high as No. 4 overall in two of its six seasons. When plans for a seventh season, featuring Arthur and Macy as Maude and Walter Findlay moving to Washington, D.C. (with Maude as a politician) fell through, Macy segued into short-lived sitcom Hanging In. That series was a retooling of a comedy called Mr. Dugan starring Cleavon Little (which, itself, was a revised version of the two characters from Maude in Washington).

Prior to Maude, Macy made an uncredited appearance in Mel Brooks theatrical The Producers in 1967, and he was one of the original 1969 cast members of the Off Broadway nudie musical Oh, Calcutta!, where he met actress Samantha Harper, whom he married in 1975.

Following Maude, Macy guest-starred on numerous television series including Hotel, St. Elsewhere, The Love Boat and L.A. Law; and his third regularly scheduled sitcom role was on 1987 CBS entry Nothing in Common (based on the Tom Hanks/Jackie Gleason movie of the same name). His final guest role was in 2010 on Jada Pinkett Smith medical drama Hawthorne.

The actor is survived by his wife.