Phyllis Somerville, actor of stage and screen, dies at 76

NEW YORK – Phyllis Somerville, an actor with a lengthy career of roles in film, television and Broadway productions, has died. She was 76.

Somerville’s manager Paul Hilepo says the actor died Thursday in New York City of natural causes.

A native of Iowa, Somerville moved to New York in the 1970s. She most recently appeared onstage in the Broadway production of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

“She took pride in calling herself a New Yorker but she had salt of the Earth mid-western roots which she was also proud of,” Hilepo said in an email.

On television, she appeared in “The Big C,” “NYPD Blue” and was in films like “Arthur” and was among “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” cast members nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Her last film credit was “Poms,” in which she appeared alongside Diane Keaton and Pam Grier in a comedy about older women who form a cheerleading squad.

In “The Big C,” she played the foul-mouthed neighbour to Laura Linney's character, a straight-laced history teacher who is given a grim cancer prognosis.