Deborah Iona Raffin (March 13, 1953 – November 21, 2012) was an American actress, model and audiobook publisher.

Early life

Raffin was born in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

to actress Trudy Marshall and Phillip Jordan Raffin, a restaurateur and business executive. Her father was Jewish, and her mother was Christian.

Career

Like her mother, Raffin appeared as a model on numerous magazine covers including '' 'Teen'', '' Seventeen'' and ''

Good Housekeeping ''Good Housekeeping'' is an American lifestyle media brand that covers a wide range of topics from home decor and renovation, health, beauty and food, to entertainment, pets and gifts. The Good Housekeeping Institute which opened its "Experiment ...

'' in the 1970s and 1980s and acted in several 1970s Hollywood films. She co-starred with Joseph Bottoms in the

Gregory Peck Eldred Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an American actor and one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, 12th-greatest male ...

-produced film '' The Dove'' (1974). Her 1976 television movie, '' Nightmare in Badham County'', became a theatrical hit in

mainland China "Mainland China", also referred to as "the Chinese mainland", is a Geopolitics, geopolitical term defined as the territory under direct administration of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War. In addit ...

, making Raffin a star there and leading to her later becoming the first Western actress ever to undertake a movie promotion tour in that country. She was nominated for both a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress and a Razzie Award for Worst Actress for her performance in '' Touched by Love'' in 1981. That same year, she starred in the TV series adaptation of the hit 1978 film '' Foul Play'', in which she and

Barry Bostwick Barry Knapp Bostwick (born February 24, 1945) is an American actor. He is best known for portraying Brad Majors in '' The Rocky Horror Picture Show'' (1975) and Mayor Randall Winston in the sitcom '' Spin City'' (1996–2002). Bostwick has also ...

took over the roles played by

Goldie Hawn Goldie Jeanne Hawn (born November 21, 1945) is an American actress, producer, dancer, and singer. She achieved stardom and acclaim for playing lighthearted comedic roles in film and television. In a career spanning six decades, she has received ...

and

Chevy Chase Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase (; born October 8, 1943) is an American comedian, actor, and writer. He became the breakout cast member in the first season of ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1976), where his recurring ''Weekend Update'' segment b ...

. In 1988, she starred in

James Clavell James Clavell (born Charles Edmund Dumaresq Clavell; 10 October 1921 – 7 September 1994) was a British and American writer, screenwriter, director, and World War II veteran and prisoner of war. Clavell is best known for his ''Asian Saga'' nov ...

's '' Noble House'' with

Pierce Brosnan Pierce Brendan Brosnan (born 16 May 1953) is an Irish actor and film producer. He was the fifth actor to play the fictional secret agent Portrayal of James Bond in film, James Bond in the List of James Bond films, James Bond film series, starri ...

. In 1991, she appeared as Julie Vale, a

telepath Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic ...

, in the cult film '' Scanners II: The New Order'' alongside actor

David Hewlett David Ian Hewlett (born 18 April 1968) is an English-Canadian actor, writer and director, known for his role as Dr. Rodney McKay in the ''Stargate'' science-fiction franchise. He first gained fame for his roles as Grant Jansky in the Canadian ...

. She later appeared as Julie Camden Hastings on the television show '' 7th Heaven'' from 1996 to 2005, and as Dr. Hightower in the

ABC Family American cable television, cable and satellite television network Freeform (TV channel), Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through four different owners and six different name changes dur ...

series '' The Secret Life of the American Teenager'' from 2008 to 2010.

Personal life

Raffin married film producer Michael Viner in 1974. The couple later became

audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sch ...

publishers. They had one child, daughter Taylor, and divorced in 2005.Elaine Woo
"Michael Viner dies at 65; tabloid book publisher"
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'', August 13, 2009.

Death

On November 21, 2012, Raffin died from

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

at the

Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center (also commonly referred to as UCLA Medical Center, RRMC or Ronald Reagan) is a hospital located on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, United S ...

, one year after being diagnosed with cancer. She was 59 years old.

Select filmography

* 1973 ''

40 Carats ''Forty Carats'' is a play by Jay Presson Allen. Adapted from the French original by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Gredy, the comedy revolves around a 40-year-old American divorcee who is assisted by a 22-year-old when her car breaks down ...

'' as Trina Stanley * 1974 '' The Dove'' as Patti Ratteree * 1975 '' Jacqueline Susann's Once Is Not Enough'' as January Wayne * 1976 '' God Told Me To'' as Casey Forster * 1976 '' Nightmare in Badham County'' (TV Movie) * 1977 '' The Sentinel'' as Jennifer * 1977 '' The Ransom'' (aka ''Assault on Paradise'') as Cindy Simmons * 1979 ''Mind Over Murder'' (TV Movie) as Suzy * 1979 ''The Last Convertible'' (TV Miniseries, 2 Episodes) * 1980 '' Touched by Love'' as Lena Canada * 1980 '' Haywire'' (TV Miniseries) as Brooke Hayward * 1981 ''Killing at Hell’s Gate'' (TV Movie) as Anna Medley * 1982 ''For Lovers Only'' as Lilah Ward * 1983 '' Dance of the Dwarfs'' as Dr. Evelyn Howard * 1983 ''Running Out'' (TV movie) as Elizabeth St. Claire * 1983 '' Grizzly II: Revenge'' as Samantha Owens * 1983 '' Sparkling Cyanide'' (TV movie) as Iris Murdoch * 1984 '' Lace II'' (TV Miniseries, 3 Episodes) as Judy Hale * 1984 ''Last Video and Testament'' episode from '' Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense'' (TV Series) as Selena Frankham * 1985 '' Death Wish 3'' as Kathryn Davis * 1985 ''Claudia'' as Claudia * 1988 '' Noble House'' (TV Miniseries, 2 Episodes) as Casey Tcholok * 1989 '' B.L. Stryker'' (episode "Carolann") as Carolann * 1990 '' Night of the Fox'' as Sarah Drayton * 1993 ''

Morning Glory Morning glory (also written as morning-glory) is the common name for over 1,000 species of flowering plants in the family Convolvulaceae, whose taxonomy and systematics remain in flux. These species are distributed across numerous genus, gene ...

'' as Elly Dinsmore (also co-writer of screenplay) * 1996 '' 7th Heaven'' as Julie Camden

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Raffin, Deborah 1953 births 2012 deaths 20th-century American actresses 20th-century American Jews Actresses from Los Angeles American film actresses American television actresses American television directors American women film directors Burials at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery Deaths from leukemia in California Film directors from California Jewish American actresses American women television directors