ACTRESS PEGGY LIPTON, who gained fame in the late 1960s with her star turn on the cop show Mod Squad and returned to TV two decades later on Twin Peaks, has died at the age of 72 after a battle with cancer.
Her daughters Rashida and Kidada Jones, from her marriage to legendary music producer Quincy Jones, confirmed her death yesterday in a statement to US media.
“We are heartbroken that our beloved mother passed away from cancer,” they said. “She made her journey peacefully with her daughters and nieces by her side.”
Born in New York on 30 August 1946, Lipton launched her career in modelling as a young teenager. By age 19, she was getting bit parts on television shows such as Bewitched.
But she catapulted to fame in 1968 with the premiere of Mod Squad, on which she starred as Julie Barnes, a reformed juvenile delinquent turned undercover cop. The show was one of the first to feature an interracial cast.
Lipton earned four Emmy nominations for the role and a Golden Globe award.
She took a long break from acting that coincided with her marriage to Jones, who is black. The couple wed in 1974, not long after Mod Squad went off the air, and divorced in 1989. Both of their daughters went into acting.
Rashida Jones is best known for her roles on The Office and Parks and Recreation.
Lipton returned to the small screen on David Lynch’s cult supernatural show Twin Peaks, playing Norma Jennings, the owner of the Double R Diner.
“I lost a sister today. She was a true angel on earth. Always the coolest in the room,” Twin Peaks co-star Madchen Amick said on Twitter.
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