10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Wales Online
The Graduate star dies at 84 after six-decade career as family speak out
The Graduate star dies at 84 after six-decade career as family speak out
Lainie Miller was best known for her dazzling burlesque performance in the 1967 classic film 'The Graduate'
Lainie Miller has sadly died at the age of 84, her family has said
(Image: Getty )
Actress Lainie Miller has passed away at the age of 84 at her home after a battle with metastatic cancer, as confirmed by a family spokesperson to The Hollywood Reporter. Best known for her dazzling burlesque performance in the 1967 classic film 'The Graduate', Lainie's career was multifaceted, spanning from show-stopping performances to a significant presence behind the scenes in Hollywood.
She went on to perform burlesque as a Las Vegas showgirl and as a headliner with Minsky's Revue, then used her experience to play a stripper in a memorable scene that humiliates Katharine Ross' Elaine Robinson in Mike Nichols' The Graduate (1967).
To provide stability for her daughter, Barbara Ann, Miller left acting in 1966 to start a career in nursing, putting her paycheck from the Paramount film toward her studies. 'I wanted to start exercising my brains — for a change,' she said. 'My tassels were getting tired.'
Her subsequent return to the silver screen in the 1980s saw her as an IATSE 871 script supervisor, contributing to the production of series like 'Freddy's Nightmares' (1988-90) and the film 'Down Periscope' (1996). In addition to script supervising, she served over a decade as a business agent and producer.
Her husband, the noted character actor Dick Miller — he appeared in lots of Roger Corman and Joe Dante films, among them A Bucket of Blood and Gremlins — died in January 2019 at age 90. They were together for nearly 60 years.
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Lainie's personal life also held a touch of Hollywood glamour, having been married to the prolific actor Dick Miller—known for his expansive career over 50 years in over 180 movies—who sadly passed away at 90 in 2019; their 52-year-long marriage is celebrated in the documentary 'That Guy Dick Miller' (2014), which premiered on her 73rd birthday. Relishing in their shared history, she reminisced, "I was his fan before I met him, so I'm living a dream."
Her family described her with affection, stating: "Fierce, fabulous, passionate, witty and romantic are just some of the words friends and loved ones use to describe Lainie, who often held down the fort with enormous tenacity and chutzpah so her husband could maintain a career as an actor - the quintessential woman-behind-the-man."
