Actress Carol Bruce died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on 9 October 2007. Born Shirley Levy in Great Neck, New York, on 15 November 1919, she started her career as a stage actress and singer in 1940s, but was better known for playing Mama Carlson, the ruthless station owner on the television comedy WKRP in Cincinnati.
Her genre roles include parts in The Land Before Time IV: Journey Through the Mists (1996) and The Twilight Zone (1985).
Early in her career, she sang at President Franklin Roosevelt’s Birthday Ball in the White House in 1942.
She is survived by her sister, Marilyn Berk; her daughter, Julie Nathanson-Coryell; two grandsons; and two great-grandsons.