Barbara Bosson, a staple of primetime television dramas for decades (including many created or produced by her former husband Steven Bochco), has died at the age of 83. Her son Jesse Bochco announced the news via his Instagram.
“More spirit and zest than you could shake a stick at. When she loved you, you felt it without a doubt. If she didn’t, you may well have also known that too,” Bochco wrote. “Forever in our hearts. I love you Mama.”
Bosson is perhaps best known for her starring role in “Hill Street Blues,” the game-changing cop drama created by Steven Bochco. (The two married in 1970 and the series ran 1981–1987.) Bosson portrayed Fay Furillo in the first six seasons of the show, appearing in 100 episodes and garnering five consecutive Emmy nominations for her role.
She subsequently appeared in other Bochco productions, including “L.A. Law,” “Cop Rock,” “Civil Wars,” “NYPD Blue” and “Murder One,” a genuinely ahead-of-its time courtroom drama that, at least initially, focused on a single murder trial each season.
Bosson also showed up in other, non-Bochco series like “Mannix,” “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” “Murder, She Wrote” and “Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.” She last appeared in Bochco’s “Total Security,” which aired the same year that she and Bochco split up.
Bosson also appeared in several movies. The actress made early appearances in “Bullitt” and “Mame,” garnering larger roles in Peter Hyams’ “Capricorn One” (one of the best, most underrated movies of the 1970s; it’s streaming on Peacock now) and as Alex Rogan’s mother in Nick Castle’s “The Last Starfighter” (a sort of “Star Wars”-meets-“Tron” sci-fi adventure). Her last movie was a 1998 made-for-television film called “Scattering Dad.”
While married to Bochco, they had two children, including Jesse. The pair divorced in 1997.
Remembering the screen star and his one-time “Murder One” co-star, “Bosch” actor Titus Welliver shared his condolences shortly after Jesse Bochco’s announcement, tweeting that she was a “colleague, friend and surrogate mother.”
