Deborah-Raffin-Obituary

Deborah Raffin

Obituary

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Deborah Raffin, an actress who ran a successful audiobook company with the help of her celebrity friends, has died. She was 59.

Raffin died Wednesday of leukemia at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, her brother, William, told the Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/R0q9NM ). She was diagnosed with the blood cancer about a year ago.

Raffin, the daughter of 20th Century Fox contract player Trudy Marshall, had roles in movies such as "Forty Carats" and "Once Is Not Enough." She also starred in television miniseries, most notably playing actress Brooke Hayward in "Haywire" and a businesswoman in "Noble House," based on the James Clavell saga set in Hong Kong.

She and her then-husband, music producer Michael Viner, launched Dove Books-on-Tape in the mid-1980s, which blossomed into a multimillion-dollar business. The company's first best-seller was Stephen Hawking's opus on the cosmos entitle d "A Brief History of Time."

Raffin's job was getting celebrities to provide voices for some of the books. Among them were the nonfiction bestsellers "Anatomy of an Illness" and "The Healing Heart," both by Norman Cousins and read by Jason Robards Jr. and William Conrad, respectively.

Raffin also compiled celebrities' Christmas anecdotes for a 1990 book, "Sharing Christmas," which raised money for groups serving the homeless. It included stories from Margaret Thatcher, Kermit the Frog and Mother Teresa.

Raffin and Viner sold the company in 1997 and the couple divorced eight years later. Viner died of cancer in 2009.

Raffin is survived by her two siblings, William and Judy Holston; and a daughter, Taylor Rose Viner.

Services are set for Sunday in Culver City.


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It is truly rare to find someone who can make you laugh and smile one moment, and cry the next. Someone who you feel you’ve known your whole life, yet never met. Deborah Raffin was such a person. A beautiful and talented actress, who left us way too soon. Life is very unfair sometimes, as it was to Deborah. She will always live on in our minds, and in our hearts.

God is a God of all Comfort and he will Comfort the family's..My heartfelt condolences..

We miss her.

Rest in peace Deborah. The light shines bright in your memory. I will always remeber you as Aunt Julie on my favorite TV show 7th Heaven✝✝

I enjoy watching Deborah on 7th Heaven as aunt Julie she brought spark to the show. I hope she is at peace in heaven. I'm sorry for your loss. I just watched the last call for Aunt Julie episode of 7th heaven reruns. May Deborah rest in peace.✝

Deborah you are surely in Paradise now.

Just a fan, what a beautiful, loving,kind human being her face told a lot,, about who she is/was

Trying to find real Pattie like you. I always remember your phrase in "the Dove". You have also traveled your own life. rest in piece.
Here she lies where she long'd to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.

Deborh Raffin in loving memory i loved you as an actress once is not enough being one my faves you were so beautiful kind and special talent rest in peace sweet angel you are missed