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Shelley Morrison, who played Rosario Salazar on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace, died Sunday (Dec. 1), her publicist tells the Associated Press.
Morrison died from heart failure after a brief illness. She was 83 years old.
The actress played Rosario, acerbic maid to Karen Walker (Megan Mullally), for the entire original run of Will & Grace. In the 2006 series finale, it was revealed Rosario continued to live with Karen long after the years of the series.
Morrison chose not to reprise the role for the recent revival because she retired from acting. The character died off-screen of a heart attack in the show’s 200th episode, “Rosario’s Quinceanera.” In the episode, Karen throws Rosario the quinceanera she never had, but Karen can’t handle the grief and drowns her sorrows in a bar. She later sits next to Rosario’s casket and tells her that she was Karen’s best friend, her “sparring partner” and her “everything.”
At the 2019 Television Critics Association press tour, co-creator Max Mutchnick told reporters that it was entirely Morrison’s choice not to join the revival.
“Shelley has decided to retire. It was with a heavy heart that she gave us that information and that we received it, but it is the way that it goes,” said Mutchnick, via The Hollywood Reporter. “It is a choice that she has made. We really wanted Shelley to be a part of this series, so we find ourselves having to figure that out moving forward. It was not an easy decision to make, but it’s one that she made.”
In the statement announcing her death, Morrison was quoted as recently saying, “Rosario is one of my all-time favorite characters. She reminds me a lot of my own mother, who loved animals and children, but she would not suffer fools. It is very significant to me that we were able to show an older, Hispanic woman who is bright and smart and can hold her own.”
The character was actually only supposed to appear in one episode, but Rosario going toe-to-toe with Karen was so popular with viewers that the writers made her a regular.
“What a loss,” writes co-star Debra Messing on Twitter. “Our dear Rosario has passed on. Shelley had a career that spanned decades, but she will always be our dear Rosie. All my love to Walter and the entire family.”
“Shelley was a beautiful soul & a wonderful actor,” writes co-star Eric McCormack on Twitter. “Her work as Rosario, season after season, was as nuanced and real as it was hysterical. She will be missed by everyone at #WillandGrace, she’s a huge part of it. Sending so much love to Walter and Shelley’s whole family.”
Aside from Will & Grace, Morrison also appeared in Funny Girl, Divorce American Style, General Hospital, Gunsmoke, The Fugitive, The Outer Limits, Laredo, The Flying Nun, Troop Beverly Hills, Courthouse, Generator Rex, and Handy Manny. Her career spanned over 50 years before she retired from acting.
Morrison is survived by Walter Dominguez, her husband of more than 40 years.
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