Francine Beers

Francine Beers (November 26, 1924 – March 27, 2014) was an American actress born in Brooklyn, New York, the only child of Harry and Sadie Beers. She graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School in 1942. Her father's sister Sally had performed in vaudeville and in the Ziegfeld Follies. Harry Beers died when Francine was fifteen, after which she and her mother moved in with Sadie's parents until Beers completed her schooling.

Following graduation, Beers joined the advertising firm Young & Rubicam, where she worked in the Radio and Television department beginning in 1944. She remained with the firm for two decades before leaving in 1964 to pursue acting full time. Her subsequent career encompassed radio, theatre, film, and television, and extended nearly six decades before her retirement in 2007.

Beers made her Broadway debut in 1964 and continued performing on Broadway through 1982. Her Broadway credits included Cafe Crown (1964), On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, 6 Rms Riv Vu (1972–1973), Arthur Miller's The American Clock (1980–81), and William Alfred's The Curse of an Aching Heart (1982). In 6 Rms Riv Vu she played the Lady in 4A and Trixie's mother, and she reprised her role in the 1974 television film adaptation of the same production. In The American Clock she portrayed Fanny Margulies, and in The Curse of an Aching Heart she played Minnie Crump at the Little Theatre in New York. Her stage work also included a touring production of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever in 1967, in which she played Mrs. Hatch, and a 1967 tour of Funny Girl, where she appeared as Mrs. Strakosh, the matchmaker. In 1988 she received the Helen Hayes Award in Washington, D.C. for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Resident Production for her work in Light Up the Sky at Arena Stage.

On television, Beers took on recurring and guest roles across several decades. She appeared as Arraignment Judge Janis Silver on Law & Order from 1991 to 1997, as Sybil Gooley on All in the Family in 1975, and as Bea Finster on Kate & Allie in 1986. Additional television credits included The Doctors (1970), The Carol Burnett Show (1974), Edge of Night (1978–81), One of the Boys (1981–82), Chicken Soup (1989), The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd (1990), TriBeCa (1993), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2000), and Sex and the City (2002).

Her film work began in 1971 with Made for Each Other and A New Leaf. Subsequent film appearances included Over the Brooklyn Bridge (1984), 3 Men and a Baby (1987), Sticky Fingers (1988), Keeping the Faith (2000), In Her Shoes (2005), and Lucky You (2007), the last of which marked her final screen credit before retirement. Beers died on March 27, 2014, at the age of 89, at her home on Manhattan's Upper West Side.