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‘Footloose’ Star Lynne Marta Dies at 78 After ‘Good Fight’ With Cancer: ‘A Dear Heart’
Actress Lynne Marta, who starred in Footloose, died at age 78 after a battle with cancer.
Lynne’s friend Chris Saint-Hilaire confirmed the actress died on January 11 in her Los Angeles home, according to a Wednesday, January 17, report by The Hollywood Reporter. Another friend of The Love, American Style actress Joan Sobel honored her via Facebook after her death.
“We lost a beautiful light today. My friend, Lynne Marta lost her good fight. A wonderfully talented actress and a beautiful singer whose voice was of the angels,” Joan wrote on January 12 alongside a professional headshot of Lynne. “A dear heart who adored her friends both human and furry. I will miss her terribly.”
The New Jersey native began her outstanding entertainment career at a young age on the dance series The Lloyd Thaxton Show. Lynne earned one of her first acting credits on the show Gidget and The Monkees in 1966. She also made her first television appearances in the late ‘60s and into the ‘70s, starring in shows like The Outsider, Then Came Bronson and Dan August.
The late Hollywood starlet gained popularity in the 1970s when she landed recurring roles in Cannon and Starsky and Hutch and appeared in the film Help Me … I’m Possessed.
Lynne was romantically linked to actor David Soul while they both starred in the four-season run of Starsky and Hutch. Although they lived together, the pair had an “open relationship” and “spent time with other people,” according to People. They split shortly after the crime drama, which Lynne also sang in, stopped filming. David died weeks before Lynne on January 4, 2024, after an extreme battle with lung cancer.
Lynne was also connected to a big Hollywood crime in 1989. The Blood Beach actress lived in the same apartment complex as fellow young Hollywood actress Rebecca Schaeffer and happened to be home the night she was shot to death by manic fan Robert John Bardo.
“The door shook, the wall shook. The cat went up into the air. I fell to my knees and crawled into the bedroom. Then, I heard Rebecca’s first scream,” Lynne testified during the trial against Robert in 1989, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times. “She was still screaming while I was talking to 911. By the time I got to the door, she was wailing. I opened the small hatch in my door. There was a smell I’ll never forget: the smell of gunfire. It was quiet except for light moaning.”
