Frances Sternhagen, ‘Cheers’ and ‘Sex and the City’ actor, dies at 93

Frances Sternhagen won two Tony Awards during her career, including one in 1995 for featured actress in a play for her performance in “The Heiress.” Frances Sternhagen, a stage and screen actor who received acclaim for her maternal roles on “Cheers,” “Sex and the City” and “The Closer,” has died. A veteran character actor, Sternhagen was a familiar maternal face to TV viewers in such shows as “ER” and “The Closer.” For her turn in NBC sitcom “Cheers” as Esther Clavin, mother of the titular bar’s regular Cliff Clavin, Sternhagen was nominated twice for Primetime Emmys, in 1991 and ’92. She was nominated for Tonys four other times, for starring or featured roles in “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window,” “Equus,” “Angel” and “Morning’s at Seven.” In 2013, she played Edie Falco’s mother in the off-Broadway play “The Madrid.” Daniel Sullivan, her director in the 2002 revival of the 1938 play “Morning’s at Seven,” praised her strong personality and warmth behind the scenes. “Franny is very definite, a true pro, but her sort of sweet nature certainly is true in her working relationships.” Playwright Paul Rudnick on Wednesday called her “a wonderful actress, capable of the highest comedy and deeply moving drama,” who “could seem regal or plainspoken.” She was, he wrote on X, “an indelible presence.” Maria Alex Beech, also a playwright, remembered working with Sternhagen on a play and described her as “self-effacing and humble.” “She came to rehearsal with her own sandwich and sat with us, just one of us,” Beech wrote in a tweet.