Film & TV Actress Deborah Raffin Dies at 59

Deborah Raffin, a film and television actress who later became an audiobook publisher, has passed away after a battle with leukemia on Wednesday. She was 59-years-old. Her brother reported the news to the Los Angeles Times.

Raffin appeared in several 1970s Hollywood films. Her 1976 television movie Nightmare in Badham County became a theatrical hit in mainland China, making Raffin a star there, and leading to her later becoming the first Western actress ever to make a movie promotion tour in that country. She was nominated for both a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama.

In 1988, she starred in James Clavell's Noble House with Pierce Brosnan. In 1991, she appeared as Julie Vale, a telepath, in the cult film Scanners II: The New Order. She later appeared as Aunt Julie on the television show 7th Heaven, and as Dr. Hightower in the ABC Family teenager series, The Secret Life of the American Teenager.

Raffin and her husband, music producer Michael Viner, launched audiobook powerhouse Dove Books-on-Tape.