Actor Barbara Bosson, nominated for multiple Emmy awards for her portrayal of Fay Furillo in the acclaimed 1980s police drama “Hill Street Blues,” has died. She was 83.
According to her son, director and producer Jesse Bochco, Bosson died Saturday “peacefully … (and) surrounded by her family and loved ones.” No cause of death was given.
Bosson was best known for her “Hill Street Blues” role, for which she was nominated for a supporting drama actress Emmy during each of the first five years of the show’s run. Furillo was introduced as the fussy ex-wife of Daniel J. Travanti’s Capt. Frank Furillo, but over the course of the series she evolved into a victim’s advocate.
She left “Hill Street Blues” early in its sixth season, after a dispute with the show’s production company, MTM Enterprises, over her role and salary. Bosson lamented at the time that the show’s new executive and co-executive producers for Season 6 wanted to undo some of Furillo’s character development. “Hill Street Blues” was co-created by Bosson’s then-husband, the late prolific television writer-producer Steven Bochco, who was let go from the series after its fifth season. Bosson and Bochco were married from 1970 to 1997 and had two children together.