Doris Roberts Dead at 90

Doris Roberts, who is fondly remembered for four-time Emmy Award winning role as interfering matriarch Marie Barone on CBS sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond,” died Sunday in Los Angeles. She was 90.

Born Doris May Green on November 4, 1925 in St. Louis, Roberts’ acting career began in 1951 with an appearance on CBS dramatic anthology “Starlight Theatre.” Other early guest star roles on the small screen included “Ben Casey,” “Naked City” and “The Defenders.” She made her film debut in “Something Wild” in 1961, and appeared in a roster of theatricals including “A Lovely Way to Die,” “No Way to Treat a Lady,” “The Honeymoon Killers,” “Such Good Friends,” “Little Murders” and “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three.” Roberts also appeared in numerous Broadway shows including “The Desk Set,” Neil Simon’s “The Last of the Red Hot Lovers” and Terrence McNally’s “Bad Habits.”

Roberts’ continued to make the rounds guest-starring in TV series in the 1970s like “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Medical Center,” “Baretta,” “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” “All in the Family” and “Soap.” Her first regularly scheduled series role was in 1979-89 sitcom “Angie.” She also made multiple appearances on “Barney Miller,” was a regular in short-lived ABC comedy “Maggie” in the 1981-82 season, and won her first of five Emmy Awards for her guest role as a homeless woman on NBC’s “St. Elsewhere” (opposite her life-long friend James Coco) in 1983.

Prior to “Everybody Loves Raymond,” Roberts was also a regular on NBC detective drama “Reemington Steele” and 1993 CBS sitcom “The Boys;” and she made multiple appearances on HBO’s “Dream On.” After “Everybody Loves Raymond,” Roberts was reunited with her TV daughter-in-law Patricia Heaton in three episodes of Heaton’s “The Middle” on ABC. More recently, she appeared in three episodes of sitcom “Melissa & Joey.”

Said “Everybody Loves Raymond” star Ray Romano in a statement: “Doris Roberts had an energy and a spirit that amazed me. She never stopped. Whether working professionally or with her many charities, or just nurturing and mentoring a young, green comic trying to make it as an actor, she did it all with such a grand love for life and people and I will miss her dearly.”