Audra Marie Lindley was an American actress, most famous for her role as landlady Helen Roper on the sitcom Three's Company and its spin-off The Ropers.
Life and career
Born in Los Angeles, California, Lindley got her early start in Hollywood as a stand-in, which eventually progressed to stunt work, and she eventually became a contract player with Warner Bros. In 1943, she went to New York in her mid-20s to work in theater. Among her many Broadway plays during her long career were: On Golden Pond, Long Day's Journey into Night, and Horse Heavens. After a break from acting to raise five children, she began to make steady appearances on television in the early 1960s, including the role of Sue Knowles on the soap operaSearch for Tomorrow, and a six-year stint as manipulative Aunt Liz Matthews on the soap opera Another World. She also had regular roles as Meredith Baxter's mother in the sitcom Bridget Loves Bernie as well as Lee Grant’s best friend in Fay. In 1971, she starred in Taking Off, the first American film of Milos Forman. On February 7, 1981 she had a guest role on The Love Boat. Her greatest fame arrived when she began playing the wisecracking, perpetually unfulfilled, and sexually frustrated Helen Roper on the hit sitcom Three’s Company, in which she wore a wig to maintain the character’s exaggerated hairstyle. The character and her husband, Mr. Roper, were spun off to their own show, The Ropers, which was not a success. Lindley continued to appear steadily on television and in films, such as Revenge of the Stepford Wives in 1980 and as Fauna, the owner of a brothel in the 1982 film Cannery Row. In 1982, she appeared in the film Best Friends, starring Goldie Hawn and Burt Reynolds. She had a supporting role in the lesbian-themed film Desert Hearts. In 1987, she had a supporting role as Judith Light's mother in the TV movie Dangerous Affection. She also appeared in 1989's Troop Beverly Hills as outspoken director of the Wilderness Girls. Also in 1989, she was the main character of an episode of the horror anthology series Tales from the Crypt. In 1991 she starred in an episode of the horror anthology series The Hidden Room. She garnered parts in various TV films and series, including playing Phoebe Buffay's grandmother on Friends, and her last, a recurring role as Cybill Shepherd's mother on the sitcom Cybill and had previously played Shepherd's mother in the 1972 filmThe Heartbreak Kid.
She was married to Hardy Ulm, with whom she had five children, from 1943 until his death in 1970. She was then married to actor James Whitmore from 1972 to 1979. Lindley died of leukemia on October 16, 1997, at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. She was age 79.
