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NEW YORK – Actress Ann Wedgeworth, who gained fame on film and Broadway before taking on the role of a flirty divorcee on “Three’s Company,” has died at age 83.

Wedgeworth’s daughter Dianna Martin says her mother died Thursday in the New York area after a long illness.

Wedgeworth won the 1978 Tony award for best featured actress in a play for her performance in Neil Simon’s “Chapter Two.”

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She acted in soap operas and also found success in Hollywood with roles alongside Gene Hackman in the 1973 film “Scarecrow” and Robert De Niro in “Bang the Drum Slowly” the same year.

She’s perhaps best known for the TV sitcom “Three’s Company,” where she played Lana Shields, an older woman with her eyes set on her young neighbour Jack, played by John Ritter.

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