‘Songwriter,’ ‘Six Weeks’ Actress Was 80 – The Hollywood Reporter

Shannon Wilcox

Courtesy of Kelli (*80*)

Shannon Wilcox, a personality actress who seemed along Willie Nelson in Songwriter, with Dudley Moore in Six Weeks and reverse Al Pacino in Frankie and Johnny, has died. She was once 80.

Wilcox died Sept. 2 in Los Angeles, her daughter, actress-director Kelli (*80*) — she performed legal professional Lindsay Dole on The Practice — instructed The Hollywood Reporter.

A lifestyles member of The Actors Studio, Wilcox additionally portrayed the mummy of Elisabeth Shue’s Ali Mills in John G. Avildsen’s The Karate Kid (1994) and labored in lots of different notable motion pictures, amongst them Tony Richardson’s The Border (1982), Ivan Reitman’s Legal Eagles (1986), Mark Rydell’s For the Boys (1991) and David Fincher’s Seven (1995).

Wilcox was once the resigned ex-wife of Nelson’s Doc Jenkins in Alan Rudolph’s Songwriter (1984) and the spouse of a California flesh presser (Moore) stuck up with a lady (Mary Tyler Moore) and her sickly kid (Katherine Healy) in Tony Bill’s Six Weeks (1982). And in Garry Marshall’s Frankie and Johnny (1991), she performed a prostitute employed by means of Pacino’s lonely persona to spend the night time.

Marshall would stay her busy over time, additionally placing her in Exit to Eden (1994), Dear God (1996), The Other Sister (1999), Runaway Bride (1999), The Princess Diaries (2001) and its 2004 sequel and Raising Helen (2004).

Born Mary Kay Wilcox in Ohio, she was once raised on a farm in Indiana together with her siblings, Bob, Caudie and Janny. She attended highschool and faculty in Boulder, Colorado, earlier than transferring to Paris to change into a dancer. She in the end settled in Los Angeles and began her profession as an actress.

Wilcox made her onscreen debut on a 1976 episode of Starsky & Hutch and seemed on such different presentations as Kaz, Hawaii Five-O, Family and Hart to Hart earlier than touchdown her first film, the Mac Davis-starring Cheaper to Keep Her (1980).

In 1981, she was once a number of the inaugural workforce of actors and filmmakers invited by means of Sydney Pollack to review on the Sundance Institute.

She portrayed the ex-wife of a Texas surgeon performed by means of Dennis Weaver — she nonetheless loves him however needed to go away him as a result of he was once simply too fascinated with his paintings — at the 1987-88 ABC drama Buck James, however that display lasted simply 19 episodes.

On Dallas in 1990, she recurred at the two-part finale of the thirteenth season and at the first 3 episodes of the 14th season in a seamless tale arc that had J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) caught in a psychiatric medical institution.

Wilcox additionally seemed on episodes of Remington Steele, Cagney & Lacey, Magnum, P.I., L.A. Law, NCIS: Los Angeles and Grey’s Anatomy and in motion pictures together with Hollywood Harry (1986) and There Goes My Baby (1994).

She and (*80*) performed mom and daughter at the 2004 Hallmark Channel telefilm A Boyfriend for Christmas.

Wilcox “was quick to laugh, lit up every room she entered and loved traveling and making friends all over the world,” her daughter mentioned. “She spoke French, Spanish and Italian. One of her greatest passions was dancing tango and salsa, which she continued to do beautifully well into her 70s. Her dance card was always full.”

Wilcox was once married to plastic surgeon John (*80*) from 1965 till their 1984 divorce and to Godfather actor and Emmy winner Alex Rocco from 2005 till his July 2015 loss of life at age 79.

In addition to her daughter and brother, survivors come with her son, Sean Doyle, a author and manufacturer, and grandchildren Kiran, Sarame and Ravi. A personal birthday party of lifestyles is being held in her honor this month.