Norma Crane

Norma Crane, born Norma Anna Bella Zuckerman on November 10, 1928, in New York City, was an American actress who worked across stage, film, and television. Though she was born in New York City to a Jewish family, she was raised in El Paso, Texas. She studied drama at Texas State College for Women in Denton and later became a member of Elia Kazan's Actors Studio.

Crane made her Broadway debut in Arthur Miller's The Crucible, and in 1962 she appeared on Broadway in Isle of Children. Her stage training informed a career that extended broadly into film and television. On screen, she is best remembered for portraying Golde in the 1971 film adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof, which proved to be her final film. She also appeared in They Call Me Mister Tibbs! and Penelope, as well as playing Ellie Martin in Vincente Minnelli's film version of Tea and Sympathy.

During the 1950s, Crane was a frequent presence in live television drama, first drawing wider attention through a televised adaptation of George Orwell's 1984. She appeared in three episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "There Was an Old Woman" in 1956, "The Equalizer" in 1958, and "Appointment at Eleven" in 1959. That same year she portrayed the character Tilda on the television Western Gunsmoke, a series she returned to in 1961 for an episode titled "Perce." She guest-starred four times on the CBS Western Have Gun – Will Travel with Richard Boone, and appeared in multiple episodes of ABC's The Untouchables, including a role as Lily Dallas, a gang leader.

In 1960, Crane played Sarah Prentice in the Riverboat episode "River Champion" on NBC, and shortly after took the role of Sarah in "Deadly Tomorrow," an episode of the ABC adventure series The Islanders. In 1961, she appeared in the title role of "The Return of Widow Brown" on the NBC Western The Deputy, and also appeared in an episode of The Asphalt Jungle that year. Later television credits included a 1965 appearance as Mrs. Mavis Hull in The Fugitive episode "Masquerade" and a 1968 episode of The Flying Nun.

In 1961, Crane married writer-producer Herb Sargent; the marriage later ended in divorce. She died of breast cancer on September 28, 1973, in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 44, two years after the release of Fiddler on the Roof.