Thrice Academy Award-nominated actress Eleanor Parker, who is best known as the baroness who loses to Maria in The Sound of Music, has passed away at the age of 91.
Parker died as a result of complications from pneumonia, her friend Richard Gale announced, The Associated Press reports.
He said, "She passed away peacefully, surrounded by her children at a medical facility near her home in Palm Springs."
Parker was at her peak as an actress in the 1950s, which is when she was nominated three times for an Oscar. As her career dipped, her last big appearance was in the 1965 film The Sound of Music. After that she was mostly known her guest roles on shows, including Murder, She Wrote and The Love Boat.
She said that she was "primarily a character actress," when asked why she never became a star. "I've portrayed so many diverse individuals on the screen that my own personality never emerged."
According to Variety she was nominated for the films Caged, Detective Story and Interrupted Melody.
Parker once said, "When I am spotted somewhere it means that my characterizations haven't covered up Eleanor Parker the person. I prefer it the other way around."
Her last on screen performance was in the TV movie Dead on the Money in 1991. Parker is survived by her two sons, Paul and Richard; two daughters, Susan and Sharon; and her fourth husband Raymond Hirsch.
image: Wikimedia Commons
