Vale: Joyce Randolph

Veteran US actress Joyce Randolph, best known for The Honeymooners, has died aged 99.

She died on Saturday in New York City of natural causes, in hospice care at the time of her death.

Randolph was the last surviving member of the classic sitcom, playing Trixie Norton, wife to Art Carney’s ‘Ed Norton’ first in skits on The Jackie Gleason Show.

There were just 39 episodes of The Honeymooners whch followed from 1955 – 1956 but its popularity endured for decades in syndication.

Despite the live studio audience, there was not much conversation between cast members.

As claimed by Randolph, asking Gleason to give her more lines was out of the question. “You don’t even talk to Jackie, let alone ask for anything,” she said. “He didn’t talk much and he didn’t like to rehearse much.”

Randolph became so identified with the role of Trixie that she found it difficult to get other roles after the series ended. She made an appearance on the sitcom Hi Honey I’m Home in 1991, which featured numerous former TV stars, and appeared in one episode of the earlier TV drama The Doctors and the Nurses.

“For years after (The Honeymooners),” Randolph said, “directors would say: ‘No, we can’t use her. She’s too well known as Trixie.”

Source: Variety, Wikipedia.