Hollywood is mourning the passing of veteran actress Bunny Levine, who passed away peacefully in her sleep at age 97.
Throughout her lengthy career, Levine appeared in numerous films and television series.
In addition to portraying an elderly resident of Stars Hollow on “Gilmore Girls,” the actress also appeared in “Law & Order,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “New Girl,” “Shameless,” and acted alongside Adam Sandler in his film “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan.”
Levine’s manager confirmed the sad news to The Hollywood Reporter, while Los Angeles reports that she died Thursday, August 20 at her home in Tarzana, California.
Librarian Turned Actor
According to Levine’s biography on IMDB, she was born on December 22, 1928, in East Orange, New Jersey.
She became interested in acting at a young age, but was forced to abandon that ambition while working as a school librarian and raising three children.
It wasn’t until after she retired that she began to revive her childhood dream, taking acting classes and auditioning for various roles.
Following the 2003 death of her husband Bernard Levine, she moved to Los Angeles, where her fledgling acting career began to take off at an age when her peers were enjoying retirement.
Extensive Credits
Despite starting later in life, Levine nevertheless built up an impressive roster of roles, with more than 100 screen credits under her belt.
She continued working right up to the end; in addition to several projects released in 2026, she also has a few more that she’d completed that have yet to be released.
Following news of her passing, tributes have begun flooding in from fans and friends. “One of the sweetest people I knew and inspired me so much,” wrote actor Sudi Rick Karatas on Facebook.
“Her passion for helping actors has launched countless careers,” reads a tribute from Actors Connection, an organization she founded back in 1991.
‘I Could Do This’
“Acting is always what I wanted to do, but it wasn’t practical. I don’t know if you’ve seen a picture of me, but I wasn’t a good young leading lady. I’m short and a little character-y. I wasn’t ugly, but I wasn’t beautiful either, so acting just wasn’t practical,” Levine reflected in a 2021 interview with Mel magazine.
“I got married young, while I was in college, and I was having children soon after and taking all sorts of graduate classes,” she recalled. “I became a teacher and then a librarian, so acting was out of the picture for almost 35 years. Then, when I was 55, I took early retirement — that was in 1985, that’s how old I am! — and I sneaked back into community theater and thought, I could do this.”
TV’s Dirty Grandma
As Levine pointed out, she’d kind of cornered the market when it came to “dirty grandma” roles, which certainly describes the characters she played in “Chappelle’s Show” and “Don’t Mess With the Zohan.”
“I mean, the joke there was that I was the last person that Dave [Chappelle] had sex with, and I had some line about a pickle that was a double entendre. I guess it really started there,” she said of that “Chappelle’s Show” role that secured her future.
“I don’t know what it is [about getting these sorts of roles]. It’s just total coincidence. You certainly don’t get all the roles you audition for, but I tended to get these roles and I don’t know why. That’s not me in real life. In real life, I’m not a funny person, but at least three-quarters — probably more — of the roles I’ve gotten have been comedic. It’s strange,” she observed.
“I never really tried to analyze it, I just thought, This is funny, here’s another one. And then here’s another one,” she shared. “I guess I am funny on camera, but I have no idea why.”
Porshae Rivers