Bonnie Franklin, the 80's sitcom television actress best known for her role as the divorced mom Ann Romano from "One Day At a Time," has passed away from pancreatic cancer at the age of 69.
Franklin died at her home in Los Angeles due to complications from her pancreatic cancer, family members said. It was announced she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in September.
Though she had sucess as a stage and television performer previous to "One Day At a Time," it was the 80s sitcom series that made her into a household name. The show's focus on a young divorced mother seeking independence from an overwhelming marriage was groundbreaking for its time, and transformed the idea of what a woman on television should appear like.
The sitcom premiered on CBS in December 1975, five years after the network passed on a similar show that had Mary Tyler Moore playing a divorced woman on her own comedy series. At the time, CBS insisted that the newly single Mary Richards be portrayed as having ended her engagement instead.
"One Day At a Time" ran on CBS until 1984 and was a top 20 hit during the first seven of nine total seasons on air. The show struck home with real life problems that were facing families in higher numbers than before, including premarital sex, birth control, suicide and sexual harassment. These contemporary issues were overlooked by American television previously, and "One Day At a Time" was a true game changer in this field.
In her 2009 memoir "High On Arrival," McKenzie Phillips, who played Bonnie's daughter on the show, remembered Franklin as a hard worker and a perfectionist.
"Bonnie felt a responsibility to the character and always gave a million notes on the scripts," Phillips wrote. "Above all, she didn't want it to be sitcom fluff - she wanted it to deal honestly with the struggles and truths of raising two teenagers as a single mother."
Franklin was a "devoted mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, aunt and friend," her family said in a statement.