Oscar Winner Dorothy Malone, 'Peyton Place' Mom, Dies In Dallas

DALLAS (AP) - Actress Dorothy Malone, who won hearts of 1960s television viewers as the long-suffering mother in the nighttime soap "Peyton Place," has died at age 93.

Her daughter Mimi Vanderstraaten says Malone died Friday from natural causes in her hometown of Dallas. Vanderstraaten says her mother died days before her 94th birthday.

Her career started slowly but surely in movies. Her first notable role was as a seductive bookstore clerk in the classic noir "The Big Sleep."

She won the 1956 supporting actress Oscar portraying an alcoholic nymphomaniac who tries to steal a married Rock Hudson from Lauren Bacall in "Written on the Wind."

"Peyton Place" aired from 1964 to 1969 on ABC. Nighttime soaps were rare at the time, but the popular series won Malone new prominence and made stars of Mia Farrow and Ryan O'Neal.

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