Character actress Cloris Leachman dies at age 94

Cloris Leachman, a character actress who won an Oscar for the “The Last Picture Show” and Emmys for her comedic work in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and other TV series, has died. She was 94.

Leachman died of natural causes at her home in Encinitas, California.

Millions of viewers knew the actress as the neighbor Phyllis in CBS’s long-running “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” She also appeared as the mother of Timmy on the “Lassie” series.

Leachman played a prostitute in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” a crime-spree family member in “Crazy Mama,” and the infamous Frau Bucher in Mel Brooks’s “Young Frankenstein.”