Doris Belack

Doris Belack (February 26, 1926 – October 4, 2011) was an American actress of stage, film, and television, born in New York City to Russian Jewish immigrant parents, Isaac and Bertha Belack. The younger of two children, she had an older sister. Belack launched her acting career directly after graduating from high school, joining a summer stock theater company and beginning a professional life that would span more than six decades.

Her Broadway career ran from 1960 to 1990 and included several notable productions. She starred in The Cemetery Club and appeared in Semi-Detached, The Ninety Day Mistress, and Nathan Weinstein, Mystic, Connecticut, among other productions.

Belack built a substantial presence in daytime television, originating the role of Anna Wolek Craig on One Life to Live, a part she held for nearly a decade. She also appeared in three separate roles on Another World over the course of several years, portrayed psychiatrist Dr. Claudia Howard on The Doctors in 1980, and played Beth Bryson on The Edge of Night in 1981. Later in the 1980s she took on the recurring role of Pine Valley's mayor on All My Children. She was occasionally misidentified as the original Bernice Fish on Barney Miller; in fact, she served only as a one-episode replacement for Florence Stanley, who originated the role.

On the big screen, Belack portrayed soap opera producer Rita Marshall in the 1982 comedy Tootsie, starring Dustin Hoffman. Her subsequent film appearances included Fast Forward (1985), Batteries Not Included (1987), Splash, Too (1988), She-Devil (1989), Opportunity Knocks (1990), What About Bob? (1991), Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult (1994), Krippendorf's Tribe (1998), The Odd Couple II (1998), and Fail Safe (2000).

In television, Belack led the short-lived CBS sitcom Baker's Dozen as Florence Baker, a no-nonsense NYPD undercover anti-crime unit captain; the series lasted approximately one month. She guest starred in a 1985 episode of The Golden Girls as Gloria, the sister of Bea Arthur's character Dorothy Zbornak. From 1990 to 2001, she recurred as Judge Margaret Barry on Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. She provided voice work as Maureen McReary in Grand Theft Auto IV and voiced Mrs. Dink and Mrs. Wingo on the Nickelodeon animated series Doug. Her final television appearance came in a 2003 episode of Sex and the City.

Belack was married to producer Philip Rose for 65 years; the couple had no children. Rose died on May 31, 2011, four months before Belack herself died on October 4, 2011, in New York City, at the age of 85.