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Bonnie Franklin, known for her freckled, fair complexion, hazel eyes, rosy cheeks, and vibrant carrot-colored hair, could brighten any room with her lively, folksy charm, yet she showed a commanding seriousness when it came to meaningful acting roles. It was Norman Lear and a hugely popular TV sitcom that ultimately made the 31-year-old actress a household name in the mid-1970s.
Born Bonnie Gail Franklin on January 6, 1944, in Santa Monica, California, she was the daughter of Samuel Benjamin, an investment banker, and Claire (née Hersch) Franklin, both of Jewish heritage. She was introduced to the stage early as a child tap dancer and became a protégé of the accomplished tapper Donald O'Connor. At age 9, she performed with O'Connor on NBC's The Colgate Comedy Hour (1950). The following year, she appeared as one of the Cratchit daughters in the 1954 TV adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" on Shower of Stars, featuring Fredric March and Basil Rathbone as Scrooge and Marley. As a young girl, she also had uncredited roles in films such as The Kettles in the Ozarks (1956), Alfred Hitchcock’s The Wrong Man (1956), and the Sandra Dee/Troy Donahue drama A Summer Place (1959).
When she was 13, her family relocated from Santa Monica to upscale Beverly Hills. After graduating from Beverly Hills High School in 1961, Bonnie briefly attended Smith College, where she acted in an Amherst College production of "Good News" during her freshman year. She then transferred to UCLA, majoring in English. After completing her studies, she returned to television, appearing in lighthearted comedies that suited her perky, pixie-like demeanor. These included episodes from Mr. Novak (1963), Gidget (1965), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964), Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1965), and The Munsters (1964). In 1967, she married Ronald Sossi, a playwright known for his work on the TV series The Rat Patrol (1966), but the marriage ended in 1970.
Bonnie’s breakthrough came on the musical stage. After steady work in productions such as Drat the Cat! (1965), Your Own Thing (1968), George M.! (1969), and Dames at Sea (1969), she made her Broadway debut in Applause (1970), a musical adaptation of All About Eve starring Lauren Bacall. She played a theater gypsy named Bonnie, who performs the title song with her troupe. Her performance earned her Outer Critics and Theatre World awards, as well as a Tony nomination in 1970. She continued her stage career with prominent roles in A Thousand Clowns (1971), the title role in Peter Pan (1973), and the revue Oh, Coward! (1975).
Her fame grew significantly when she starred as Ann Romano, a divorced mother raising two daughters (played by Mackenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli) on the sitcom One Day at a Time (1975). While her infectious cheerfulness and radiant smile contributed to the show's appeal, Franklin was intent on addressing challenging topics like divorce, birth control, sexual harassment, and suicide, alongside comedy. Although the series did not reach the groundbreaking status of All in the Family (1971), it maintained consistent and respectable ratings, ranking in the Top 20 for seven of its nine seasons, and aired on CBS until 1984. During the show’s run, Bonnie received one Emmy nomination and two Golden Globe nominations. She also appeared in several TV movies, including A Guide for the Married Woman (1978), Breaking Up Is Hard to Do (1979), portraying the title character in Portrait of a Rebel: The Remarkable Mrs. Sanger (1980), and Your Place... or Mine (1983). Additionally, she directed episodes of One Day at a Time, Karen's Song (1987), Charles in Charge (1984), and The Munsters Today (1988).
After the series ended, Bonnie reduced her on-screen appearances, focusing more on theater and various humanitarian causes. She made sporadic guest appearances on shows such as Burke's Law (1994 revival), Almost Perfect (1995), and Touched by an Angel (1994). A notable highlight was the 2005 TV reunion special The One Day at a Time Reunion. Her return to the stage after a 14-year hiatus included roles in Happy Birthday and Other Humiliations (1987), Annie Get Your Gun (1988) as Annie Oakley, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (1988), Love and Guilt and the Meaning of Life (1990), Grace & Glorie (1996), All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten (1997), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1999), Same Time, Next Year (2000), Dancing at Lughnasa (2003), A Touch of the Poet (2005), A Delicate Balance (2007), and as the cantankerous Ouisar in Steel Magnolias (2011). She also created and toured her own cabaret show and participated in nearly a dozen staged readings with Los Angeles' Classic and Contemporary American Playwrights.
Franklin was a dedicated activist supporting various charities and civic causes, including AIDS care and research and the Stroke Association of Southern California. More recently, she reunited with her One Day at a Time co-star Valerie Bertinelli in a 2011 episode of Bertinelli’s sitcom Hot in Cleveland (2010), and in 2012, she had a recurring role as a nun on the daytime soap The Young and the Restless (1973).
In September 2012, Bonnie was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and passed away several months later on March 1, 2013. Her second husband of 29 years, television and film producer Marvin Minoff—who produced her TV movie Portrait of a Rebel: The Remarkable Mrs. Sanger (1980) and the film Patch Adams (1998)—had died in 2009.
