Nan Martin

Best remembered for her maternal character roles on film and series television, actor Nan Martin enjoyed a nearly five-decade career spanning everything from the Broadway stage to Emmy-winning sitcoms. Martin amassed a slew of credits on New York's Great White Way--most notably a Tony-nominated role in Archibald MacLeish's modernist play "J.B."--while also appearing in small movie parts. While the theater afforded her more substantial roles, Martin, in later years, became better known for playing comic characters on series television, making frequent guest appearances on shows such as "Mr. Sunshine," "The Golden Girls," and "The Drew Carey Show." Able to tackle a surprisingly wide range of older, motherly types--from the cantankerous to the sweet--Martin worked consistently in TV and film until the mid '00s. Her final role was on the Golden Globe-nominated HBO film "Mrs. Harris" (2005) as the grieving mother of murdered Scarsdale Diet doctor Herman Tarnower.