Marcia Wallace, who played schoolteacher Edna Krabappel in The Simpsons, has lost her battle with cancer at the age of 70.
Wallace made her Simpsons debut in the episode ‘Bart The Genius’ on January 14, 1990. It was the second show of the very first season. She was Bart’s 4th grade teacher at Springfield Elementary School.
Al Jean, the producer of The Simpsons, called the character “irreplaceable” and will now retire the character from the show. “I was tremendously saddened to learn this morning of the passing of the brilliant and gracious Marcia Wallace. She was beloved by all at The Simpsons and we intend to retire her irreplaceable character,” he said in a statement.
Edna wasn’t the only schoolteacher Marcia played. She was also Marcia Brady’s teacher in the Brady Bunch episode ‘Getting Davy Jones’. She also played the woman who sold Jan Brady a wig in the ‘Will The Please Jan Brady Please Stand Up’ episode.
Marcia Wallace was a Hollywood stalwart. She rose to global fame in the 1970s as Bob Newhart’s receptionist Carol Kester in The Bob Newhart Show.
Marcia has also appeared in ‘Murphy Brown’, ‘Bewitched’, ‘Full House’, ‘The Young and the Restless’, ‘Murder She Wrote’, ‘Magnum P.I.’, ‘Charles In Charge’ and ‘A Different World’.
She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1985. Her husband, hotelier Dennis Hawley, died from pancreatic cancer in 1992.
