Actress Lynne Marta, best known for her roles in the films “Footloose” and “Joe Kidd” and as a prolific television actress whose career spanned five decades, has died. She was 78 years old.
Marta died last Thursday at her home in Los Angeles after a battle with cancer, according to the Hollywood Reporter, which confirmed the death of the actor along with his friend, Chris Saint-Hilaire.
Born in New Jersey, Marta's first on-screen role came in her early 20s in 1966, playing a supporting character in an episode of the coming-of-age comedy, “Gidget,” alongside future Oscar winner , Sally Field. After a series of one-off appearances on other shows, she landed a role on “Love, American Style,” an anthology comedy show in which she appeared in minor roles during its first and second seasons.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, she made guest appearances on iconic shows including “Gunsmoke,” “Mod Squad” and “Charlie's Angels” and on four episodes of “Starsky & Hutch.” Marta and David Soul, who played Sgt. Kenneth Richard “Hutch” Hutchinson began dating while she was on the show. Soul, who died a week before Marta, told People in 1983 that the couple dated for all four seasons of the show and had an open relationship. The two also appeared together in the 1977 television special “David Soul and Friends.”
On the big screen, Marta became best known for her role in Clint Eastwood's 1972 western, “Joe Kidd.” In the film, Eastwood's character, a hired gun, falls in love with Elma (Marta), the girlfriend of a wealthy, murderous landowner played by Robert Duvall. More than a decade later, Marta appeared in the hit musical drama “Footloose” in 1984; she played Lulu Warnicker, an aunt of Kevin Bacon's Ren and one of the many conservative townspeople who disapprove of the dance.
In 1989, Marta also made headlines as a witness in the murder trial of a man accused of shooting and killing fellow Hollywood actress Rebecca Schaeffer, who died at age 21. Marta lived down the hall from Schaeffer in the same Fairfax district apartment. During the incident, Marta was home and said she heard a gunshot and subsequent screams.
“The door shook, the wall shook,” Mart said in court, according to Times coverage of the trial in 1989. “The cat went up in the air. I fell to my knees and crawled to the bedroom. “Then I heard Rebecca’s first scream.”
Then he called 911.
“She was still screaming while I was talking to 911,” Marta continued. “When I got to the door, she was crying. I opened the small hatch in my door. There was a smell that I will never forget: the smell of gunshots. “It was silent except for light moans.”
Robert John Bardo, a 19-year-old Schaeffer fan who had been harassing her, was convicted of Schaeffer's murder. Her death would lead to the passage of stricter anti-harassment laws in California.
After the trial, Marta spent the next two decades playing small roles on popular television shows such as “Law & Order,” “Passions,” “Crossing Jordan,” “ER” and “Days of Our Lives.” Marta last played a role in 2004, appearing as an assistant on the second season of the Emmy-winning NBC drama, “American Dreams.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
