Barbara Tarbuck, a veteran actress likely best known for her roles on General Hospital and American Horror Story: Asylum, died Monday, according to The Associated Press.
She was 74 years old.
Tarbuck’s daughter, producer Jennifer Lane Connolly, confirmed this sad piece of news to the AP yesterday.
She said that her talented mother passed away at her Los Angeles residence and suffered from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disorder, a rare, degenerative brain disease.
A native of Detroit, Michigan, Tarbuck got her start in the business at the age of nine when she appeared on Storyland, a children’s series on AM radio station WWJ.
From there, she proceeded to land a few impressive television roles, filling up her resume with such beloved shows as:
– Charlie’s Angels.
– Dallas.
– Cagney & Lacey.
– The Golden Girls.
– Mad Men.
– Dexter.
– And General Hospital.
It was on this final, long-running soap opera that she portrayed Jane Jacks over the span of 14 years.
In addition to portraying Mother Superior Claudia on American Horror Story Season 2 (below), Tarbuck stopped by two other Ryan Murphy hits, Nip/Tuck and Glee.
On the big scree, Tarbuck’s movie highlights include performances in Big Trouble (1986), Short Circuit (1986), Curly Sue (1991), The Tie That Binds (1995) and Walking Tall (2004).
She even appeared in a Broadway production of Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs in the 1980s and Harold Pinter’s Landscape and Silence.
What an impressive career.
Tarbuck also taught acting at UCLA for years.
She studied acting at Wayne State University and graduated in 1963.
After receiving her master’s degree from the University of Michigan, Tarbuck was the lead actress at Indiana University in its inaugural theater touring company season.
Along with her daughter, Tarbuck is survived by her son-in-law, Samuel Chawinga, and two grandsons: Cianan and Cuinn Chawinga.
We send our condolences to her family, friends and loved ones.
As has been well documented by now, 2016 was a tragic year for celebrity deaths.
With this passing, the veteran actress joins a long list that includes all of the following names:
May they all rest in peace.