Mary Alice, a Tony and Emmy Award-winning actress best known for her roles as Leticia “Lettie” Bostic on NBC’s A Different World and Effie Williams in the musical Sparkle, has died in New York City on Wednesday (July 27), according to @people. She was 85.
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The actress’s death was confirmed by “one of her close friends,” according to Philip Lewis of HuffPost, who announced the information on his Twitter Thursday. “Mary Alice, known for her roles as ‘Lettie’ on A Different World and Effie Williams in Sparkle, has died, one of her close friends tells me,” Lewis wrote.
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“‘We are all very sad at the loss,'” he shared from the source’s statement.
The cause of death has not been revealed at the moment this story is still developing.