Hope Lange, the talented leading lady who earned an Academy Award® nomination for her role as a sexually abused daughter in Peyton Place (1957) and blossomed into a fine comedienne, earning two Emmy Awards on the popular sitcom The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1968-70), died of an intestinal inflammation on December 19th in Santa Monica. She was 72.

Born on November 28th, 1931 as Hope Elise Ross Lange in Redding Ridge, Connecticut, Lange grew up in show business as the daughter of a musician father and actress mother. She was only 12 when she made her Broadway debut in Sidney Kingsley's Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Patriots. By the '50s, she graduated to roles in early live television programs, including Playhouse 90 and Kraft Television Theatre. After being spotted by film producer Buddy Adler in these early performances, she was brought to Hollywood to portray the waitress Emma in Josh Logan's film adaptation of the William Inge play Bus Stop (1956).

In only her third film, Lange earned an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of a young incest victim who murders her rapist father in Mark Robson's enormously popular melodrama Peyton Place (1957). Her success in that film earned her a contract with 20th-Century-Fox, and Lange soon went on to star in a succession of quality movies with top-flight leading men: The Young Lions (1958) opposite Montgomery Clift; The Best of Everything (1959) with Stephen Boyd; Wild in the Country (1961) alongside Elvis Presley; and Frank Capra's whimsical Pocketful of Miracles (1961) co-starring Glenn Ford.

Lange turned to television in the late '60s, and scored a hit with the series The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1968-70), earning two Emmy awards in the process. She fell into another sitcom shortly thereafter, this time as Dick Van Dyke's wife in The New Dick Van Dyke Show (1971-74); but had the thankless role as Charles Bronson's ill-fated wife, who was raped and murdered, in Death Wish (1974). Lange went into semi-retirement soon after to concentrate on raising her family. She did return to the screen on occasion for some solid roles including David Lynch's stylish Blue Velvet (1986) playing Laura Dern's mother; and in Clear and Present Danger (1994), a Harrison Ford action vehicle in which she played the no-nonsense Senator Mayo. Her first marriage was to actor Don Murray (1956-61), and her second was to director Alan J. Pakula (1963-71). She is survived by her husband Charles Hollerith; a son, Christopher Murray; a daughter, Patricia Murray; and two grandchildren.

by Michael T. Toole