Posted by April MacIntyre Jan 27, 2010, 21:28 GMT
Petite actress Zelda Rubinstein, who portrayed the eccentric medium Tangina Barrons in the 1982 film 'Poltergeist,' stealing the movie with her squeaky childish voice, has died at age 76.
Pittsburgh-native Zelda stood at 4-foot-3 inches, and after she broke through in roles on film in 1981; she became a cast member on the TV show 'Picket Fences.'
FOX news reporter Dennis McLellan writes Ms. Rubinstein championed rights for little people and that she was an early AIDS activist.
Ms. Rubinstein died today of natural causes at Barlow Respiratory Hospital in Los Angeles, said Eric Stevens, her agent to FOX news.
Ms. Rubinstein had suffered a mild heart attack months earlier, Stevens said. "She had ongoing health issues and unfortunately they finally overtook her," he said.
The New Yorker's fierce critic, Pauline Kael, lauded the role that made Ms. Rubinstein famous, a role specifically written for a little person per producer Steven Spielberg in a past Times interview. Kael wrote of Zelda's Tangina: "(her) character gives the movie new life, and she makes a large chunk of it work. . . . she emanates the eerie calm of someone who is used to dealing with tricky, deceiving ghosts."
Kael added that Rubinstein was "so fresh a performer" that after she delivers a speech about the spirit world, "you want to applaud her exit line."
Comments