Tony-Nominated Actress Marcia Rodd Passes Away at 87

BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that Tony Award-nominee Marcia Rodd, who originated the role of Bobbi in Neil Simon's Last of the Red Hot Lovers, passed away on December 27, 2025, at the age of 87. 

A longtime performer of the stage and screen, Rodd starred as Dorothy Gale in a televised production of The Wizard of Oz in 1964, before making her Broadway debut in Oh What a Lovely War! She went on to create the role of Olivia in off-Broadway's Your Own Thing also appeared in The Mad Show off-Broadway.

She originated the role of Bobbi in the original 1969 Broadway production of Neil Simon's Last of the Red-Hot Lovers, appearing alongside Linda Lavin, Doris Roberts, and James Coco. For her role in the 1973 Cryer/Ford musical Shelter, she received a nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. 

In productions in Los Angeles, she played the title role in Driving Miss Daisy, the psychiatrist in Agnes of God, Mary Todd Lincoln in The Last of Mrs. Lincoln, and starred in Once in a Lifetime (Mark Taper), The Supporting Cast (Doolittle), On Golden Pond (with Julie Harris and Charles Durning at the Ahmanson) and as Golde in Fiddler On The Roof at the Dorothy Chandler and in both its 25th and 30th Anniversary Tours.

Throughout her career, she guest-starred in countless TV shows like Murder, She Wrote, Grey's Anatomy, and All in the Family. Recurring TV roles included a 4-year stint as the candy-eating dentist on Trapper John M.D, Johnny Depp's mother on 21 Jump Street, Judge Scott on Family Law, and the lead in 13 Queens Blvd opposite Eileen Brennan. 

Movies included Alan Arkin's Little Murders (which marked her film debut), T.R. Baskin, and Jonathan Demme's Citizens Band.

Other stage roles include Diana Vreeland in the one-woman play Full Gallop (Actors' Theatre of Louisville), the title role in Lorca's House of Bernarda Alba (Santa Fe Rep), and Mary McCarthy in Hellman v. McCarthy at Abingdon Theatre Company.

Photo Credit: Tibrina Hobson.