'One Day At a Time' star Bonnie Franklin dies at 69

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><h2 class="lead-in" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-left: 60px; margin-top: -2px;">Red-haired actress was best known for her starring role in the 1975-84 sitcom.</h2><div class="article-metadata-wrap" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; float: left; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; height: auto; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 30px 0px 60px; position: relative;"><aside class="single-photo expandable-collapsed" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 20px; position: relative; width: 180px; z-index: 100;"><div class="image-wrap" style="box-shadow: rgb(200, 200, 200) 1px 1px 5px; cursor: pointer; padding: 3px; position: relative;"><img alt="franklin" class="expand-img-horiz" itemprop="url" src="http://www.gannett-cdn.com/media/USATODAY/USATODAY/2013/03/01/bonniefranklin-4_3_r536_c534.jpg?1b79b3da202957124496e3768cfb7b67cdb10c81" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%; min-height: 131px; vertical-align: middle;" /><span class="toggle" style="background-image: url(http://www.gannett-cdn.com/static/images/sprites/asset-sprite.png?1359747063); background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; bottom: 0px; height: 21px; position: absolute; right: 0px; width: 21px; z-index: 200;"></span></div><div class="image-credit-wrap" style="color: #646464; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 16px; margin-top: 6px; padding: 0px 5px 0px 0px;"><span class="credit" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: 400;">(Photo: CBS)</span></div></aside><div class="article-metadata" style="position: relative;"><aside class="comp story-highlights " style="clear: left; float: left; margin: 0px 0px 20px; min-height: 60px; width: 180px;"><h3 class="hlts" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #999999; font-family: 'Futura Today Bold', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px auto; text-transform: uppercase;">STORY HIGHLIGHTS</h3><ul class="hlt" style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; left: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><li class="hlt-item" style="background-image: url(http://www.gannett-cdn.com/static/images/components/story_highlights_bullets.png?1359747063); background-position: 0px 17px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #646464; font-size: 12px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 16px; padding: 12px 0px 12px 15px;">Family member say she died due to complications from pancreatic cancer</li><li class="hlt-item" style="background-image: url(http://www.gannett-cdn.com/static/images/components/story_highlights_bullets.png?1359747063); background-position: 0px 17px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #646464; font-size: 12px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 16px; padding: 12px 0px 12px 15px;">Her Norman Lear sitcom helped change TV's stereotypical image of mothers</li><li class="hlt-item" style="background-image: url(http://www.gannett-cdn.com/static/images/components/story_highlights_bullets.png?1359747063); background-position: 0px 17px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; color: #646464; font-size: 12px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 16px; padding: 12px 0px 12px 15px;">Her co-stars included Mackenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli</li></ul></aside></div></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">TV just lost one of its first modern mothers.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Before Bonnie Franklin — who died Friday at the age of 69 of pancreatic cancer — and her hit Norman Lear sitcom <i>One Day at a Time </i>arrived on the scene, most television mothers were either stay-at-home wives or working widows. But Franklin's Ann Romano was something new: a divorced mother of two raising two teenage daughters in a small urban apartment while struggling to relaunch her career and her love life.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">In a TV universe just beginning to take note of the real-world social changes happening beyond its screen, the sunny but sometimes hot-tempered Ann and the short, spunky redhead who played her were a breath of fresh (if sometimes hot) air. For nine CBS seasons, from 1975 to 1984, Franklin guided audiences through some of the hot-button issues of the day — premarital sex, sexual harassment, child abandonment — in a show that mixed comedy and soap in equal measure.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Franklin didn't get to sing much on <i>One Day at a Time</i>; a shame, as she garnered a Tony nomination for <i>Applause</i>, a musical adaptation of <i>All About Eve</i>. But she did get to provide parental guidance to two of TV's most fondly remembered teens, bad girl Julie (Mackenzie Phillips) and good-girl Barbara (Valerie Bertinelli), sometimes with the unrequested help of the building's super (Pat Harrington Jr.).</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Though <i>Day</i> is what's she's best known for, it was far from Franklin's debut. She had a recurring role in <i>Gidget</i> while she was still a college student, and guest roles in such '60s series as <i>The Munsters, The Man From U.N.C.L.E.</i> and <i>Please Don't Eat the Daisies</i>. But it was that Tony nomination in New York that really brought her to Hollywood's attention, and her role in <i>Day </i>that made her a TV star and Emmy nominee.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Like many of the topical sitcoms of the '70s, <i>Day</i> has not aged well. What was novel then is now either familiar or forgotten. In truth, in some quarters, it's only still discussed because of the real-world troubles that caused Phillips to be written out of the show twice.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Still, the thought of Franklin shaking her red bob, scrunching her eyes, pursing her lips, or shouting out "Julie!" can still bring a smile to people who grew up with her and Bertinelli — who gave Franklin one of her last roles, in a guest shot in <i>Hot in Cleveland.</i></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">She made our TV days better, and for that, she'll always be remembered.</div></div>

Bonnie Franklin 'One Day At a Time' star Bonnie Franklin dies at 69

Red-haired actress was best known for her starring role in the 1975-84 sitcom. (Photo: CBS) STORY HIGHLIGHTS Family member say she died due ...

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