Betty McGuire dies: 'Growing Pains' Grandma was 100 years old

TVS News AI, editorially supervised, presents Betty McGuire dies: 'Growing Pains' Grandma was 100 years old.

Betty McGuire is dead. The US actress, best remembered by audiences as grandmother Kate Malone from the ABC sitcom "Growing Pains," died on October 8 at the age of 100 at the Wasserman Campus of the Motion Picture & Television Fund in Woodland Hills, California. Cause of death: natural causes. This was confirmed by Keith Gerchak, McGuire's agent, to the trade magazine Variety.

For many fans, McGuire remains the face of the energetic Grandma Kate – the mother of Maggie Seaver, the character played by Joanna Kerns. Over seven years, McGuire was part of the regular ensemble of the family sitcom, which aired in the US from 1985 to 1992. If you know the series from your own youth, you know how she sparked conversation in the Seaver family with her quips.

What you may not know about Betty McGuire

Her career didn't start on television, but on Broadway. The Hollywood Reporter lists three prominent names she shared the stage with – Ethel Merman, Bea Arthur, and Susan Hayward. Anyone who performed alongside personalities like these in that era had earned the spotlight early.

McGuire also appeared on the silver screen: In the Cheech and Chong comedy "Up in Smoke" (1978), the first joint film of the stoner duo, she took on the role of a nun – a small but memorable figure in what would later become a cult film.

100 years of Hollywood history

At 100 years old, McGuire reached an age that few actors are granted. The Wasserman Campus, where she spent her final days, belongs to the Motion Picture & Television Fund – a nonprofit organization that has cared for older workers in the US film and television industry for decades. Those who move in there have usually already left the Hollywood life behind. For McGuire, it was a place to come to rest after a long, stage- and set-filled life.