Elisabeth Franz dies: The actress won a Tony for “Death of a Salesman.”

Theater veteran Elizabeth Franz, who won a Tony Award for her daring reinvention as the wife of the Herman title character in the 1999 Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman.” She was 84 years old.

The actress died Nov. 4 at her home in Woodbury, Conn., after a battle with cancer, her husband, screenwriter Christopher Pelham, confirmed to The Times. Pelham told The New York Times that Franz’s cause of death was cancer and a severe reaction to the drugs used to treat her.

The Ohio-born actress, opposite Linda Loman, wife of Brian Denny’s Willy Loman, in the 50th-anniversary production of “Death of a Salesman” departed from the character’s usual broken energy, surprising even the playwright Miller: “She found in the role that in every performance she was grounded, powerful and held up as a performance of the past. I know, it was simply washed away,” Miller told The New York Times in 1999. said in the interview. The production, which had a pre-Broadway run at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, eventually made its way to LA’s Ahmanson Theatre.

Alongside Dennehy, Franz later reprized the role of Linda in the 2000 Showtime television drama adaptation, which earned her an Emmy Award nomination.

She previously received a Tony nomination for her turn as Matthew Broderick’s stage mother in Neil Simon’s “Brighton Beach Memoirs” in 1983. And then got another nom in 2002 for “Morning’s at Seven,” in which she played the youngest of four Midwestern sisters. Her other stage credits include “The Cherry Orchard,” “The Cemetery Club” and — in her last role on Broadway in 2010 — “The Miracle Worker.”

Franz’s television credits include “Judging Amy,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Roseanne” and “Homeland.” One generation, though, knows her as Mia Bass, the owner of the Independence Hotel in Stars Hollow, in episode 2 of “Gilmore Girls” season. A minor, but essential to life character later appeared in season 7. He also appeared in the films “Sabrina”, “School Ties”, “Fish in the Bath” and “Christmas with the Cranks”.

In addition to Pelham, Franz is survived by a brother, Joe;