Doll Squad actress Francine York passes away aged 80 after battle with cancer
Francine York, star of such movies as Batman and Doll Squad, has passed away aged 80.
The statuesque screen beauty who appeared in numerous TV shows and movies, spanning seven decades, died at a Los Angeles hospital on Friday.
Her friend, television producer Pepper Jay, revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that the actress had been battling cancer.
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Screen star: Francine York passed away in LA on Friday, aged 80, after a battle with cancer
York never married but was the companion of director Vincent Sherman for a decade until his death in 2006.
She is survived by several nieces and nephews as well as grandnieces and grandnephews.
At the time of her death she was completing her autobiography, according to THR.
Before launching her Hollywood career, the Minnesota native had been a model and showgirl at the Moulin Rouge nightclub on Sunset Boulevard.
Her film debut came in 1962 in Secret File: Hollywood where she played a magazine editor.
The 5ft 8in beauty was the moll of the supervillain Bookworm on Batman in 1966 and played Venus de Milo on Bewitched.
1973: In Doll Squad York played the leader of a group of sexy female assassins. The 1970s film supposedly inspired TV show Charlie's Angels
The statuesque actress starred in numerous TV shows and movies spanning over seven decades. She is pictured in The Butcher's Boy
Her credits included a slew of 1960s and 1970s hit shows, such as The Odd Couple, Green Acres, Love, American Style, Ironside and Burke's Law.
More recently she appeared on The Mindy Project in 2015 and Hot in Cleveland in 2012.
In 2000 she played the mother-in-law of Nicolas Cage in The Family Man.
In Doll Squad she was the leader of a group of sexy female assassins. The 1970s film supposedly inspired TV's Charlie's Angels.
York is pictured with Robert Reed in Love, American Style, in 1969
One of her favorite roles was Lorraine Temple, a blackmailer and former prostitute, on the soap opera Days of Our Lives in 1978.
'This was the role of roles but it was hard work,' she told Tom Lisanti in his book Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema.
'One underestimates actors who toil on soaps,' she said. 'You have to learn pages of dialogue in a day and just before you go to shoot it they hand you all these changes.'
York never married and is survived by several nieces and nephews as well as grandnieces and grandnephews
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