Aug. 23, 2026, 12:57 p.m. ET
Bunny Levine, a former librarian who pursued her passion for acting later in life and racked up more than 100 movie and TV credits in “Gilmore Girls,” “Law & Order” and other Hollywood projects, has died. She was 97.
Levine’s longtime representative, Michael Eisenstadt, confirmed to USA TODAY on Aug. 23 that the actress “passed away in her sleep.” Eisenstadt noted Levine was “still auditioning and worked in June,” adding that she was “a great and fearless actress and such a nice lady” who “will be missed.”
Levine’s screen credits stretch from 1988 to 2026 and include small roles in a number of hit TV shows, including “Law & Order,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “Ugly Betty” and “2 Broke Girls.” She appeared as Mrs. Thompson, an elderly woman who Luke (Scott Patterson) argues with about moving a boat being stored in her garage, in a Season 5 episode of “Gilmore Girls.”
Levine’s more recent TV credits include “Jury Duty” “and “Mrs. Davis.” On the film side, Levine appeared as a theater cashier in the Oscar-winning movie “La La Land” and had credits in movies like “Thelma” and “Sacramento.” She also worked with Adam Sandler several times on his movies “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan,” “Sandy Wexler” and “You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah.”
According to an interview Levine gave in 2025 to The Daily Evergreen, the student newspaper of her alma mater Washington State University, she had a passion for acting since she was young but put it on the back burner after having children. Levine moved to New Jersey and worked as a school librarian, but she decided to pursue acting professionally after she retired.
“I feel very blessed to have been able to get back to what I had always wanted since early memory,” Levine told the paper. “I wish that everyone could find that happiness.”
Speaking with Mel five years ago, Levine also said that acting “just wasn’t practical” for her earlier in her life and noted it was “out of the picture for almost 35 years” until she “gradually got back into it” when she was in her 50s.
“My late husband − he died in 2003 − told me that he never saw me so happy as when I got back into acting,” she told the magazine. “Especially after he died, it was something to keep me from being really depressed and lonely. And, of course, I was depressed and lonely, but I think it alleviated that.”
