Bunny Levine, Character Actress Who Began Her Career at 50, Dies at 97
Bunny Levine, the character actress whose television credits spanned from Law & Order to Shameless, has died at the age of 97. According to The Hollywood Reporter, she passed away peacefully in her sleep on Thursday, 20 August 2026, at her home in Tarzana, California (The Hollywood Reporter).
Born on 22 December 1928 in East Orange, New Jersey, Levine took a path into acting that was anything but conventional. She worked as a school librarian and raised three children, waiting 25 years after high school before she pursued performing professionally. That delay put her in front of the camera for the first time when she was already in her fifties — a stage of life when most working actors are winding down, not starting out.
Levine moved to Los Angeles after the death of her husband, Bernard Levine, in 2003. From there, her résumé grew into one of the most recognisable faces in American television comedy and drama. Her small-screen credits included Everybody Loves Raymond, Gilmore Girls, Ugly Betty, Private Practice, Criminal Minds, 2 Broke Girls, Raising Hope, Southland, New Girl, Getting On, The Mindy Project, Fuller House, Shameless and Dave, among others (The Hollywood Reporter).
Her film work was equally wide-ranging. She appeared in Slime City, The Jimmy Show, You Don't Mess With the Zohan (2008), A Thousand Words and La La Land. She reunited with Adam Sandler on two occasions: the Netflix comedy Sandy Wexler (2017) and the 2023 Netflix film You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah.
What stands out is how long Levine kept working. She acted into her nineties, with recent credits including The Invisible Raptor (2023), Sacramento (2024) and Thelma (2024), the action-comedy starring June Squibb. Projects released in 2025 — the final season of The Upshaws and the film The Cure — added to a career that never fully stopped.
Levine is survived by her three children. No memorial details have been reported.
