Growing up, the West Coast Editor of Reel 360 had a major crush on actress Markie Post, an actress best known for playing public defender Christine Sullivan on the 1980’s hit sitcom Night Court. The actress sadly passed away Saturday night at the age of 70.
Post finally lost her battle to cancer after four years, her succumbed to a nearly four-year battle with cancer, her manager Ellen Lubin Sanitsky told Deadline.
Born in November 1950 in Palo Alto, California, Post got her start in entertainment working game shows. She began her career with the production crew of the Tom Kennedy version of Split Second. She also served as associate producer of CBS’s Double Dare and as a card dealer on NBC’s Card Sharks.
Post often was a celebrity player on various game shows, including The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour, The (New) $25,000 Pyramid, The $100,000 Pyramid, and Super Password.
In 1979, Post got her acting break with a guest spot on Barnaby Jones. She would begin making a litany of guest appearances on TV hits Simon & Simon, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, The Greatest American Hero and The A-Team. A guest role as the best friend of Shelley Long’s Diane Chambers on Cheers soon led to a regular role on The Fall Guy.
Post would then land a role in the ensemble cast of Night Court, joining Harry Anderson, John Laroquette, Richard Moll, Charles Robinson and Chicago’s Marsha Warfield. Post made an appearance in the second season of the series and joined in Season three.
After Night Court, Post would join John Ritter in the political sitcom, Hearts Afire, which ran from 1992 – 1995.
Later, she had recurring guest roles in series like “The District” and as the mother of Sarah Chalke’s doctor character on “Scrubs.”
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Post’s film credits include playing Cameron Diaz’s mother in the hit 1998 Farrelly Brothers comedy There’s Something About Mary and a singer opposite Jimmy Smitz’s Miami cop in the 1988 thriller Glitz based on an Elmore Leonard novel.
Even after her cancer diagnosis, Post continued her acting career, appearing in the 2017 Lifetime Christmas movie Four Christmases and a Wedding and the 2018-19 ABC sitcom The Kids Are Alright.
Post was also the voice of June Darby on the computer-animated robot superhero TV series Transformers: Prime. She appeared as a recurring character Barbara ‘Bunny’ Fletcher in the first four seasons of Chicago P.D.
Post was married to actor and writer Michael A. Ross, with whom she had two daughters.
