Barbara Perry, ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’ Actress, Dead at 97

The Dick Van Dyke Show actress Barbara Perry has died, according to The Hollywood Reporter. She was 97 years old.

Perry was not ill, and died of natural causes on Sunday. She is survived by daughter Laurel Lee, granddaughter Audrey Lee, and her two stepdaughters Karin and Michelle, The Hollywood Reporter revealed. No information about funeral arrangements, or further news about her death, has been revealed at this time. After news of her passing broke, Twitter was full of reactions from fans, as well as people simply spreading the word.

“Rest in peace Barbara Perry,” one user tweeted.

“Barbara Perry, a child actress in the ’20s who worked as recently as BASKETS, dead at 97. She was busiest in the ’60s, playing bottle-blonde types in sitcoms like THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW,” another tweeted.

The actress is best known for playing “Pickles,” the wife of Morey Amsterdam’s character on The Dick Van Dyke Show, but she enjoyed a long career with many roles. Perry appeared in Shock Corridor and The Naked Kiss, both of which were Samuel Fuller films. She was on many TV shows over the years, including How I Met Your Mother and Baskets. Perry also starred on Broadway, appearing in plays like Rumple and Happy as Larry.

Perry was born on June 22, 1921 in Norfolk, Virginia. Her father was a keyboard player and a conductor, and her mother sang at the Metropolitan Opera in the chorus. Perry started acting at the age of 4, according to The Hollywood Reporter. She appeared in Madame Butterfly at the Met, playing Trouble. She was a member of the children’s ballet of the Met’s corps de ballet, according to Deadline.

From there, the outlet reported that Perry’s mother took her to Hollywood to make her acting dreams come true. She opened Perry’s Studios, where Perry studied dance. Per the outlet, tap dancing was Perry’s preferred method, and she performed it at famed nightclubs like the Chez Paris in Chicago, and the Cocoanut Groce in Los Angeles, as well as others.

During her lifetime, she was married twice. Her first husband was Bennett Warren James. The two shared one daughter and they were married from 1953 to 1965. Her second husband, according to The Hollywood Reporter, was animator Art Babbitt. Babbitt is famous for developing the character of Goofy, and working on other famous Disney movies. He and Perry were married from 1967 until 1992, when Babbitt died. They did not have any children together.