Joyce Randolph, the actress who starred as Trixie Norton in The Honeymooners has died. She was 99.
Her son Randy Charles told TMZ that Randolph passed peacefully while sleeping at her home in New York City. She had been dealing with age-related health issues and was not able to walk anymore. Doctors had prepared her family, and she was under hospice care when she died.
Randolph played the wife of Ed Norton (Art Carney) in the classic 1950s TV series, which also starred Jackie Gleason and Audrey Meadows. She was the last living cast member.
While The Honeymooners was the No. 2 show when it began, it dropped to 19 by the season one finale. Because of its production cost, CBS balked at a second season. So it concluded with only 39 episodes. Nonetheless, the series is still considered one of the best comedies in TV history.
Joyce Randolph Was ‘A Wonderful Mom and Loving Wife’
Joyce Randolph worked on several other Hollywood projects before and after The Honeymooners, including the Ed Sulivan Show and Doctors and Nurses. Though none of her roles lived up to Trixie Norton.
“She joked that often she’d play the part of the young woman who ended up as the corpse in the murder mystery,” Charles told Fox News Digital. “So they used to call her the ‘most murdered girl’ on television.”
“In addition to being a wonderful actress, she was a wonderful mom and loving wife,” he added.
Joyce Randolph married Richard Lincoln Charles the day after her hit series debuted in 1955. The remained together until he died in 1997.
Randolph’s family will hold a private remembrance service in the coming weeks. Charles asks that fans make donations to the Entertainment Community Fund in his mother’s honor. In life, her husband was a member of the charity’s board.