Actress and star of Three's Company

Born: January 21, 1934

Died: November 16, 2017

ANN Wedgeworth, who has died aged 83, was an actress who gained fame on film and Broadway before taking on the role of a flirty divorcee in the television sit-com Three's Company.

Based on the 1970s British comedy Man About the House, which starred Richard O'Sullivan and Yootha Joyce, the American version ran from 1977 to 1984 and starred Wedgeworth as the amorous neighbour Lana Shields.

Wedgeworth was born in Abilene, Texas in 1934. Her father was the superintendent of a local school and her mother died when Ann was two years old. After getting a drama degree from Southern Methodist University, she moved to New York City in the 1950s to pursue a theatre career.

She landed her first Broadway role in the 1958 comedy Make A Million and continued to take on stage roles for decades. She won the 1978 Tony award for best featured actress in a play for her performance in Neil Simon's Chapter Two.

She acted in several soap operas and also found success in Hollywood with roles alongside Gene Hackman in the 1973 film Scarecrow and Robert De Niro in Bang The Drum Slowly the same year.

But she is perhaps best known for her tenure on Three's Comedy as Lana Shields, an older woman with her eyes set on her young neighbour Jack, played by John Ritter.

She appeared on only nine episodes of the show before her character was written out, which she said took her by surprise. In a 1980 interview with People, Wedgeworth said she "had no warning or explanation. Suddenly everyone was very cold to me".

Wedgeworth continued to tally TV and film credits for decades, including a starring role on the CBS series Evening Shade with Burt Reynolds from 1990 to 1994.

Other film appearances included Law and Disorder (1974), Dragonfly (1976), Soggy Bottom, U.S.A. (1981), No Small Affair (1984), Made in Heaven (1987), Love and a .45 (1994), The Whole Wide World (1996) and The Hawk Is Dying (2006), which was her final appearance in a film.

She married actor Rip Torn and the couple had a daughter, Danae Torn, before ending their five-year marriage in 1961. Wedgeworth later married acting teacher Ernest Martin and had her second daughter, Dianna Martin.

Wedgeworth died in the New York area after a long illness, her daughter Dianna Martin said.

She is survived by her husband, her two daughters and stepsons Michael Martin and Greg Martin.