'The Honeymooners' Star Joyce Randolph Dead at 99

The actress was the last surviving cast member of the beloved sitcom.

By Allison Schonter

Joyce Randolph, who played Trixie Norton on the classic sitcom The Honeymooners and was the last surviving member of the cast, has died. Randolph passed away Saturday evening at her home in New York City, her son, Randy, told TMZ. She was in hospice care at the time of her death and died of natural causes. Randolph was 99.

Born Joyce Sirola to a Finnish-American family in Detroit, according to a 2007 New York Times profile, Randolph began her career in local theater before moving to New York in 1943. There, Randolph began acting in Broadway productions, commercials, and television programs, including Buck Rogers and The Clock in 1950. After noticing her in a Clorets gum commercial in 1951, Jackie Gleason featured Randolph in his variety show, Cavalcade of Stars.

Gleason would go on to cast Randolph as Trixie in The Honeymooners, which was originally a recurring sketch on Gleason's live variety TV show. The sitcom ran for 39 episodes between 1955 and 1956 on CBS and followed Ralph Kramden, a New York City bus driver, and Norton, a sewer worker, as they "struggle to strike it rich while their wives look on with weary patience." The sitcom also starred Art Carney, Randolph's onscreen love interest, Gleason, and Audrey Meadows. Reflecting on the sitcom with The New York Times in 2012, per The Hollywood Reporter, Randolph said, "We just played ourselves. Nobody told us to characterize in any way. It was learn those lines and go on." Randolph, who reprised her role of Trixie for a cameo on Hi Honey I'm Home in 1991, was the last surviving cast member.

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"She joked that often she'd play the part of the young woman who ended up as the corpse in the murder mystery. So they used to call her the 'most murdered girl' on television," her son said of Randolph in a statement to Fox News Digital. "In addition to being a wonderful actress, she was a wonderful mom and loving wife."

Outside of The Honeymooners, Randolph also appeared in one episode of the early medical drama The Doctors and the Nurses in 1964 and had a minor role in the 2000 film Everything's Jake. She is survived by her son, Randy, from her marriage to marketing executive Richard Lincoln Charles, who died in 1997. A private remembrance service will be held for Randolph at a future date.

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