To Kill a Mockingbird actress Rosemary Murphy died on Saturday in New York City. She was 89.

Rosemary Murphy Dies

Murphy had recently been diagnosed with esophageal cancer and passed away in her Upper East Side apartment, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

In the 1962 film adaptation of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning To Kill a Mockingbird, Murphy played neighbor Maudie Atkinson, better known as Miss Maudie. Her character lives across the street from lawyer Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) and his two young children – Scout (Mary Badham) and Jem (Phillip Alford) in the fictional Maycomb, Alabama.

Prior to appearing in To Kill a Mockingbird, Murphy appeared in a number of TV series, including Robert Montgomery Presents, Thriller, Naked City, Wide Country and The Doctors and the Nurses. Following her turn in the Oscar-nominated picture, Murphy continued her TV work.

Murphy earned her first Emmy for playing Sara Delano Roosevelt in 1976 ABC miniseries Eleanor and Franklin. She earned a second Emmy for reprising the role of Sara Delano Roosevelt in 1977’s follow up TV movie Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years.

On the big screen, Murphy appeared in Walking Tall, both Any Wednesday and Julia with Jane Fonda and Woody Allen’s Mighty Aphrodite. Most recently she appeared in 2008’s Synechoche, New York.

Murphy was also an acclaimed stage actress, who received three Tony nominations for her theater work. She received nods for playing Dorothea Bates in Tennessee Williams Period of Adjustment (1961), Any Wednesday (1964) and Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance (1967). The actress last appeared on Broadway in Noel Coward’s Waiting in the Wings in 1999.

Murphy, who never married, is survived by her sister Mildred and nephew Greg.

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