NEW YORK (Reuters) – Jill Clayburgh, the Oscar-nominated actress who specialized in roles as independent women emerging from the shadows of men, died on Friday at age 66, The New York Times reported.
Clayburgh died at her Connecticut home from leukaemia, which she had lived with for more than two decades, the Times said, citing her husband, playwright David Rabe.
She was nominated for best-actress Oscars for her role in Paul Mazursky’s An Unmarried Woman in 1978 and for the comedy Starting Over opposite Burt Reynolds a year later.
In An Unmarried Woman, Clayburgh played Erica, a comfortable Manhattan wife and mother whose world comes apart when her husband, without warning, abandons her for a younger woman.
By the final reel, she embarks on a relationship with an artist, played by Alan Bates, but also finds her own inner strength, voice and independence.
Clayburgh won the best actress prize at the Cannes Film Festival for her performance.
Her roles during the late 1970s and early 1980s reflected the changes and challenges facing many women during that time.
