Biography
Elizabeth Franz was an American stage and television actress. Born Elizabeth Jean Frankovitch in Akron, Ohio, on 18 June 1941, she trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York and began her career in regional theatre before making her Broadway debut in 1967.
She was best known for her stage work, including the role of Kate Jerome in Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs (1983) and Broadway Bound (1986), and for her Tony Award-winning performance as Linda Loman in the 1999 Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Her film and television credits include The Secret of My Success (1987) as Grace Foster, Sabrina (1995), Thinner (1996), Christmas with the Kranks (2004), Gilmore Girls, Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
Franz was married to actor Edward Binns from 1983 until his death in 1990, and later to Christopher Pelham. She died on 4 November 2025 in Woodbury, Connecticut, aged 84.
