Elizabeth Franz

Elizabeth Franz, born Elizabeth Jean Frankovitch on June 18, 1941, in Akron, Ohio, was an American stage and television actress whose Broadway career spanned from 1967 to 2010. She died on November 4, 2025, at her home in Woodbury, Connecticut, at the age of 84, survived by her husband Christopher Pelham.

Franz grew up in Akron as one of four children, with two brothers and a sister. Her father, Joseph Frankovitch, worked in a tire factory. Her mother, Harriet, who was half Irish and half Native American, struggled with mental health problems that affected Franz during childhood. Franz later identified those early experiences as a motivating force behind her desire to act, viewing performance as an outlet for emotions she had to suppress at home. She graduated from Copley High School in Copley Township, Ohio, in 1959. Despite her mother's skepticism about her prospects, Franz worked as a secretary at Ohio Edison to save enough money to enroll at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. A teacher there cautioned her that, though talented, she might not find significant roles until she was past forty.

Her early professional work was billed under the name Betty Frankovitch, and she performed at the Weathervane Theater in Akron before joining The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, where she worked from 1968 to 1970. Over the course of her career she appeared in numerous regional and Off-Broadway productions, including the American premiere of Frank McGuinness's Bird Sanctuary, as well as Long Day's Journey into Night, The Glass Menagerie, The Comedy of Errors, Madwoman of Chaillot, The Lion in Winter, A View from the Bridge, The Matchmaker, The Wizard of Oz, Great Expectations, The Model Apartment, and Woman in Mind. In 2004 and 2005 she performed at the Royal National Theatre in London in Sam Shepard's Buried Child. A 2017 production of Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers at the Weston Playhouse Theatre Company, in which she played Grandma Kurnitz, drew notice from Rutland Herald critic Jim Lowe, who described her portrayal as the dramatic backbone of the production.

On Broadway, Franz appeared in productions including Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Getting Married, Uncle Vanya, and The Cemetery Club, among others. Her most celebrated Broadway role was Linda Loman in the 50th anniversary production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, for which she received the 1999 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. Arthur Miller himself remarked on her performance, stating that she had discovered in the role a basic underlying powerful protectiveness that came out as fury, and that in every prior performance he knew of, that quality had been washed out.

On television, Franz was recognized for playing the villainous Alma Rudder on the daytime drama Another World from 1982 to 1983, a period during which she was simultaneously performing Brighton Beach Memoirs on Broadway. She later played Helen Wendall on As the World Turns from 1994 to 1995 and appeared in three episodes of Roseanne as Marsha, a free-spirited beauty salon owner. Her television credits also included recurring and guest appearances on Gilmore Girls, where she played inn owner Mia, as well as Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Cold Case, Dear John, and Judging Amy. Her film work included Sabrina, Christmas with the Kranks, The Substance of Fire, The Pallbearer, Thinner, The Secret of My Success, School Ties, and Jacknife.

Franz married actor Edward Binns in 1983, and the two remained together until his death in 1990. At the time of her own death from cancer, she was married to Christopher Pelham.