Bonnie Franklin, who starred in the ’70s sitcom “One Day At A Time”, has died from complications related to pancreatic cancer. She was 69 years old.
Franklin announced last year that she was battling the disease but released a statement saying she would continue with her normal schedule as much as she could. A rep for her family said she would undergo treatment for the illness and that “she and her family remain extremely positive and thank everyone for their support and concern.”
Franklin was reunited with her onscreen daughter, Valerie Bertinelli, when she made a guest appearance on “Hot In Cleveland”, which also stars Betty White. She remained a television regular after “One Day At A Time”, appearing on shows like “The Young And The Restless”, “Touched By An Angel”, and “Almost Perfect”. She also enjoyed a film career, landing a role in the Hitchcock film “The Wrong Man” opposite Henry Fonda. Many of her television fans didn’t know that she also enjoyed a stint on Broadway, where she showed off her singing skills in Applause.
Franklin often staged one-woman shows in New York, much to the delight of her fans, and did regional theater in her later years. She left quite an impression in the business, especially for her work on “One Day At A Time”, a show which broached the difficult topic of divorce at a time when no one else would touch it.
“Even though Ann Romano was not the first divorced woman on TV, she embodied that subject matter in a way that had not been done before,” said Syracuse University television scholar Robert Thompson.“The show focused on a young divorced woman who was getting by, but also she had a sense of being flustered and exasperated. She was by no means the perfect mother who had all the perfect answers and did everything right.”