Sixties icon Peggy Lipton, star of Twin Peaks and The Mod Squad, and mother of Rashida and Kidada Jones, has died from cancer at 72.
“She made her journey peacefully with her daughters and nieces by her side,” Lipton’s daughters said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times. “We feel so lucky for every moment we spent with her.”
Born in New York City in 1946, she began modeling at age 15, and started taking acting classes shortly thereafter. She made her debut on television at age 19, mostly in guest roles, before a breakout role on the television show The Mod Squad as undercover flower-child cop Julia Barnes. The show, which dealt with serious topics of the time such as the Vietnam war and drugs, also featured one of the first interracial casts on television. It ran from 1968 to 1973.
Lipton won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Television Drama for her role in 1971, and was nominated for an Emmy four times.
While she relished her time on the series, Lipton told People in 1975 that she was glad when the series ended.
“I didn’t realize how violent Mod Squad was,” she said. “When it was over, I was so happy I couldn’t wait.”
Lipton also enjoyed a singing career, with three of her singles hitting the Billboard charts, according to Entertainment Weekly.
After the series ended, Lipton married music producer Quincy Jones in 1974 and retired from acting to raise her daughters. She returned to the spotlight after their divorce in 1990 as Double R Diner owner Norma Jennings in the David Lynch cult classic film and television series Twin Peaks. She reprised the role in the revival series in 2017.
Most recently, she worked with her daughter Rashida on the series Angie Tribeca, where she played the mother of her daughter’s character.
“We can’t put all of our feelings into words right now, but we will say: Peggy was and will always be our beacon of light, both in this world and beyond,” her daughters added in their statement. “She will always be a part of us.”
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Source: Refinery29 – Tanya Edwards