Rose Gregorio Dies: Actress Who Played Julianna Margulies’ Mom in ‘ER’ Was 97

Rose Gregorio, the Tony-nominated actress who played Nurse Carol Hathaway’s (Julianna Margulies) mom on NBC’s ER from 1996-99, has died. She was 97.

The veteran star passed away of natural causes on August 17 in her Greenwich Village home, her nephew, Robert Grosbard, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Born on October 17, 1925, in Chicago, Illinois, Gregorio began her career in theatre productions in Chicago and New York City during the 1950s and 1960s, becoming more active on television in the 1970s.

Her first on-screen role came in the Armstrong Circle Theatre episode “The Fortune Tellers” in 1961, but after that, she moved to New York, where she would go on to have a successful career on Off-Broadway and Broadway, starring in the likes of William Snyder’s The Days and Nights of BeeBee Fenstermaker and Jack Gelber’s The Cuban Thing.

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Throughout the 1970s, she appeared in many TV series, including The Doctors, The Bob Newhart Show, The Rookies, The Rockford Files, and Charlie’s Angels. She also starred in several TV films, such as One of Our Own, The Death of Richie, and Dummy.

Gregorio returned to Broadway in 1977 after an eight-year hiatus, starring as Agnes in Michael Cristofer’s The Shadow Box. Her turn as Agnes earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Place.

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She made her way back to television in the 1980s, playing Doris Wagner in 15 episodes of the NBC soap opera Another World. Her other credits include Falcon Crest and Murder, She Wrote.

One of her more memorable later roles came in 1996 when she joined the hit hospital drama ER in a guest role. She played Helen Hathaway, the mother of Julianna Margulies’ Carol Hathaway.

Her last on-screen role came in the 2017 crime-thriller film Good Time, starring Robert Pattinson and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Survivors include her nephews, Robert and John, and a niece, Lisa.