Gwen Van Dam, a character actress who appeared in everything from Halloween to The Brady Bunch to Shameless, has died. She was 96.
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Her son, Dirk Smillie, confirmed her death to The Hollywood Reporter. He shared that his mother died at her Los Angeles home on Dec. 19, 2024, after a recurrence of cancer.
Born in San Francisco, California, in 1928, Van Dam began her 70-year career in the 1950s. One of her earliest parts was an uncredited role on the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows.
Gwen Van Dam’s Career Spanned More Than 70 Years, Dozens of Popular TV Shows, and Celebrated Movies
Throughout her career, the actress appeared on dozens of popular TV shows. One-offs on everything from The Brady Bunch to The Incredible Hulk to Hart to Hart to ER to Gilmore Girls to New Girl would make her recognizable to viewers of all ages.
She even had an 11-episode stint on Days of Our Lives and played Joey’s Grandma on Joey, the short-lived Friends spin-off starring Matt LeBlanc.
Van Dam also became something of a cult icon in the horror community for an uncredited appearance as a sanitarium nurse in the iconic 1978 slasher Halloween.
Other highlights of her film career include Husbands, The Kentucky Fried Movie, Moonlighting, and more.
She even appeared in music videos for artists like U2, Smashing Pumpkins, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Panic! at the Disco, and Mastodon. Her son noted to THR that his mother would take a video role even if she wasn’t “all that familiar with those artists.”
Van Dam was a working actress until the end, appearing in two episodes of the Hulu series Interior Chinatown just last year.
She married her husband, Scottish-born actor Bill Smillie, in October 1959. The pair were together until his death at age 81 in November 2003. They shared son Dirk, daughter Claudia, and three grandchildren: Lorelei, Amanda and Crystal.
Van Dam’s sister, Jeanie, died just one week after she did at age 94.