Actress Conchata Ferrell, who had been ailing for months following a July heart attack, succumbed to the effects Monday, October 12, at Sherman Oaks Hospital in Sherman Oaks, California.
She was 77.
Deadline reports the veteran actress died while surrounded by family and friends.
Though Ferrell is best remembered as salty housekeeper Berta on more than 200 episodes of the phenomenally successful sitcom Two and a Half Men (2003-2015), for which she was twice Emmy-nominated, her career in the medium stretched back to her debut on an episode of Maude (1974).
Ferrell was also a regular on the failed Norman Lear (b. 1922) sitcom Hot l Baltimore (1975), based on the Lanford Wilson (1937-2011) play in which she had appeared off-Broadway as an original member of the Circle Repertory Theatre; played Susan Bloom on 20 L.A. Law episodes (1988-1992), garnering her first Emmy nomination; and was a regular or recurring character on such series as Hearts Afire (1992-1995), Townies (1996) and The Ranch (2017).
Born March 28, 1943, in Loudendale, West Virginia, Ferrell began performing on the stage in 1969 at college. She segued into TV and films, making impressions in the movies Network (1976), Heartland (1979), Mystic Pizza (1988), Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Erin Brockovich (2000).
Ferrell's Two and a Half Men co-star Jon Cryer tweeted:
"She was a beautiful human Berta’s gruff exterior was an invention of the writers. Chatty’s warmth and vulnerability were her real strengths. I’m crying for the woman I’ll miss, and the joy she brought so many."
Ferrell is survived by her husband of more than 30 years, Arnie Anderson, and her daughter Samantha.
