Hope Lange

Actress Hope Lange, who earned an Oscar nomination for her supporting role in the 1957 film "Peyton Place'' and won two Emmys for playing the lead in TV's "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir,'' has died at age 70. Lange died Friday at Saint John's Health Center after suffering an infection caused by an intestinal inflammation known as ischemic colitis, said her husband, Charles Hollerith, a former theatrical producer and vice president of the Actors' Fund of America. Lange starred in dozens of films and television shows over a decades-long career and appeared with some of Hollywood's top actors. Her big screen credits included "The Best of Everything'' in 1959 with Joan Crawford; "The Young Lions'' in 1958 with Marlon Brando, "Wild in the Country'' in 1961 with Elvis Presley, and "Peyton Place'' with Lana Turner. In the risque "Peyton Place,'' Lange had second billing to Turner, portraying a teen from the wrong side of the tracks who is raped by her stepfather and then is accused of murdering him. Lange combined good looks and acting prowess, said actor Don Murray, who was married to her for several years in the 1950s. "She was considered a great beauty who was also a serious and dedicated actor who didn't pay attention to being glamorous,'' he said. Murray said her looks even intimidated Marilyn Monroe, who wanted Lange's naturally blond hair dyed light brown in their 1956 film, "Bus Stop.'' "Marilyn complained about sharing the screen with another blonde,'' said Murray, who also starred in the movie. "I guess she felt competition because Hope was a young beauty.'' In "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir,'' which ran from 1968 to 1970, Lange played charming widow Carolyn Muir, who moves into a seaside home with her children and finds the ghost of a sea captain, played by Edward Mulhare. She followed "Ghost'' by costarring with Dick Van Dyke in "The New Dick Van Dyke Show'' in 1971-74, playing the wife of Van Dyke's character, a local television talk show host. More recently, she appeared on the screen in "Blue Velvet'' in 1986, and in the 1994 thriller "Clear and Present Danger,'' in which she played a senator. Born in 1933 in Connecticut, Lange grew up in New York City and studied dance, her husband said. As a child, she played a supporting part in a stage production of "The Patriots,'' he said. She is survived by her son, actor Christopher; a daughter, Patricia Murray, and two grandchildren, Hollerith said.