Marcia DeRousse, best known for playing Dr. Ludwig on HBO’s vampire drama True Blood, has died. She was 70.
According to Variety, DeRousse passed away on Saturday, September 2 in Altadena, California, after a long illness. The actress previously opened up about her health issues on Facebook, revealing in April that she’d suffered a fall at her doctor’s office that exacerbated her problems.
“Who knew a fall in my doctor’s office would lead to my death? It caused my hiatal hernia to move to an area where it is now dangerous. Can’t eat, can’t breathe, just general misery,” DeRousse wrote in a Facebook post. “Palliative care comes soon, and we wait to turn into hospice and then to die. Thank you all for being great friends. Love to you.”
Born in Doniphan, Missouri, DeRousse began her on-screen acting career in the 1980s, making her debut in the movie Under the Rainbow and then appearing in minor roles in television series such as The Fall Guy and St. Elsewhere.
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In a 2009 interview with TrueBloodNet.com, DeRousse said, “When I went to college, I believed that I was going to teach special ed, I’d really intended to do that but I walked past the theater department one day and walked in and that was it! I thought, “Oh no, this is home. This is where I’m supposed to be.”
Her career would slow down in the 1990s, but she returned to the screen in the 2000s, playing Kathleen in the 2003 dramedy Tiptoes alongside Gary Oldman and Kate Beckinsale.
Then, in 2009, she landed her most memorable role, playing Dr. Patricia Ludwig in Alan Ball‘s True Blood. She first appeared in Season 2 in the episode “Scratches” and later returned for the drama’s fourth and seventh seasons.
More recently, DeRousse starred in the 2013 TV comedy Schoooled and the 2016 psychological horror movie The Disappointments Room.