Georgia Engel, The Mary Tyler Moore Show star with a "high-pitched, innocent voice," dies at 70

The New York Times

Engel, who died on Friday, was nominated for two Emmys for her role as Georgette Franklin, the girlfriend and later wife of The Mary Tyler Moore Show's buffoonish TV newsman Ted Baxter. She joined Mary Tyler Moore in its third season. “It was only going to be one episode,” she told The Toronto Star in 2007, “and I was just supposed to have a few lines in a party scene, but they kept giving me more and more to do.” One writer said Engel's gentle, high-pitched, innocent voice “sounds like an angel has just sniffed some helium" -- a perfect contrast to Ted Knight's blustery TV newsman. She went on to earn three consecutive Emmy nominations guest-starring on Everybody Loves Raymond as the mother-in-law of Brad Garrett's Robert Barone. From 2012 to 2015 Engel reunited with Betty White, her Mary Tyler Moore co-star, on Hot in Cleveland, appearing in 18 episodes on the TV Land sitcom as White's best friend. “Georgia was one of a kind and the absolute best,” White said via a spokesperson. Most recently, Engel guest-starred on Netflix's One Day at a Time last year. “She could get a laugh on literally every line you gave her,” Everybody Loves Raymond creator Phil Rosenthal said of Engel, who appeared on 14 episodes. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” Engel's Mary Tyler Moore character was the friend we'd all like to have, said Bill Keveney in an appreciation of the actress. "Georgette's lack of sophistication and misunderstanding provided plenty of laugh lines," he said, "but she was never the butt of the joke and Engel imbued the character with a wisdom regarding life that isn't found in textbooks."