Lynne Marie Stewart, the TV actress best known for her roles on “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and “Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” has died. She was 78.
Stewart’s death was confirmed by her friend Cassandra Peterson on Instagram.
“My heart is breaking upon hearing the news of my dear friend @lynnestewart78 Lynne Stewart’s passing,” Peterson wrote. “One of the kindest, sweetest, funniest women who ever lived. The iconic Miss Yvonne of Pee-wee’s Playhouse: She’ll always be ‘the most beautiful woman in Puppetland’.”
In July 2024 Stewart told People she visited Paul Reubens before his death in 2023 and the pair reminisced about their series.
“I got to be in the hospital with him,” she explained. “He said, I have loved deeply, and I’ve been loved in return. I said, ‘Paul, you’re loved all over the world.’ And I was so glad to be able to tell him that.”
“He was funny to the end,” Stewart added. “I said to him, ‘You fulfilled a little girl’s dream.’ He was like, ‘Oh, do I have to hear this story again?’ And so he never lost it. He never lost his sense of humor.”
The pair first met when they were both members of the comedy sketch group The Groundlings. Stewart’s other roles also included stints on “M*A*S*H” and “Laverne & Shirley,” but it was her turn as Miss Yvonne, “the Most Beautiful Woman in Puppetland,” for which she is most remembered.
The character was initially conceived as part of the stage production of “The Pee-wee Herman Show.” Stewart went on to play the character in five seasons of “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” and in the movies “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” and “Big Top Pee-wee.”
Reubens debuted the character in 1978 at a Groundlings event.
Stewart later joined the cast of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” as Charlie Kelly’s mother Bonnie. Charlie Day, who played her son on the series, wrote on Instagram Saturday, “The brilliant and talented Lynne Marie Stewart. Rest in peace. Thank you for all the years of laughter.”
Lynne Marie Stewart was born Dec. 14, 1946, in Los Angeles.
