Timothy Hiatt/Getty Images
Actress Mary Pat Gleason has passed away. She was 70 years old.
The talented actress who was sure to bring a smile to any set she worked on passed away from cancer on Tuesday, June 2 her manager confirmed to Variety. Her manager commented that the actress, best known for her roles in the likes of A Cinderella Story and Mom, “was a fighter to the end.”
Want the Top 5 news stories of the day delivered straight to your inbox before you even wake up? Sign up for the Fame10 Top 5 newsletter and receive 5 breaking news stories every morning!
Writer and director Ron Fassler shared a message of the actress’s passing by posting a sweet tribute on Facebook.
“Mary Pat Gleason, one of the dearest and sweetest people I have ever had the pleasure to know, passed away last night at the age of seventy. She has 174 credits on her IMDB page (with one unreleased film still to come), but she was so much more than a wonderful actress,” Fassler wrote.
“She was one of a kind. So caring, so funny, and so delicious to be around, that I find it hard to imagine a world without her shining presence and smiling face. My heart goes out to all who knew and loved her,” he continued.
“Let’s all raise a glass to her this evening as one and offer a final toast and a fond farewell in her memory,” Fassler concluded.
Over the years Gleason appeared in Will & Grace, Life in Pieces, Desperate Housewives, WTF 101, How to Get Away with Murder, Shameless, Instant Mom, Scandal, Sex and the City and more, but is perhaps best known for her role as Eleanor in A Cinderella Story starring Hilary Duff.
More recently she has become known for her recurring role in the CBS comedy Mom, where she played Mary, an AA member who constantly interrupted Allison Janney’s character as she shared with the group. The character’s anecdotes tended to be bizarre, often creepy, and she ended up dying of a brain aneurysm during one meeting in an episode of the show’s recent seventh season.
Thoughts are with Gleason’s family and friends.