Actress Dixie Carter—best known for her role as Julia Sugarbaker on the TV series Designing Women—has passed away at the age of 70, according to an ABC News item.
Hal Holbrook, an actor who was Carter’s husband since 1984, said, “This has been a terrible blow to our family.”
Designing Women, which ran in the ’80s and ’90s, revolved around four women and a man at an interior-design firm in Atlanta. Carter played an outspoken liberal, and the show had (and continues to have) a huge gay following. She also appeared other TV shows, including Filthy Rich, Diff’rent Strokes and Desperate Housewives (snagging an Emmy nomination for Housewives).
Carter was also well-known on the Broadway stage, having been in such productions as Thoroughly Modern Millie and Master Class.
In addition to Halbrook, Carter is survived by Mary Dixie and Ginna, her daughters from her first marriage, to Arthur Carter.