Markie Post, the actress best known for her roles in TV’s “Night Court” and “Scrubs” and the film “There’s Something About Mary,” died Saturday following a years-long battle with cancer. She was 70.
The California-born actress’s death was confirmed by her manager Ellen Lubin Sanitsky, who didn’t release further details on the circumstances, Deadline reported.
Post got her start in the entertainment business when she started working as a producer on game shows before starting her on-camera career as a card dealer on NBC’s “Card Sharks” in the late 1970s, the outlet reported.
She later appeared in several television series, including “CHiPs,” “The Incredible Hulk,” “Cheers,” “Fantasy Island” and “The A-Team.”
In 1982, she landed the part of Terri Michaels, the bail bondswoman in ABC’s “The Fall Guy,” and was in 65 episodes over the course of three years.
She was also a regular fixture on the NBC sitcom “Night Court” in her role as public defender Christine Sullivan, who was in 159 episodes between 1985 and 1992.
Post eventually made her way to the big screen when she played Cameron Diaz’s mother in the 1998 hit comedy “There’s Something About Mary” and even when she got sick, she was determined to keep acting and worked on a number of projects in between chemo treatments.
“For us, our pride is in who she was in addition to acting; a person who made elaborate cakes for friends, sewed curtains for first apartments and showed us how to be kind, loving and forgiving in an often harsh world,” her family said in a statement, according to Deadline.
Post is the second “Night Court” star to die in the last month. On July 11, Charlie Robinson, known for his role as the court clerk Mac, died at the age of 75 from cardiac arrest and organ failure due to septic shock and metastatic adenocarcinoma, a type of cancer.
Post leaves behind her husband Michael A. Ross, daughters Kate Armstrong Ross and Daisy Schoenborn.