Selma Archerd, the widow of longtime Variety columnist Army Archerd who appeared in the first Die Hard and played Mrs. Claus in Richard Donner’s Scrooged, has died. Archerd “peacefully” passed away on Dec. 14 in Los Angeles, according to a Legacy.com posting on the Los Angeles Times‘ website. Archerd was 98. A cause of death was not disclosed.
Born Selma Helene Fanning in Newark, New Jersey in February 1925, Archerd attended UCLA and married her first husband, Howard Rosenblum, in 1943, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Following their divorce in 1968, Archerd went on to marry Army, whom she first met at a party when she was 16 and he was 19, the following November. Together, the couple were regulars on the Hollywood social circuit, per Variety, frequently attending premieres, award shows, and charity dinners throughout the year during their 39-year marriage. The couple also played themselves on a 1987 installment of The Love Boat and appeared as one of the celebrity couples on the game show Tattletales from 1974 through 1977.
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Throughout her decades-long career, Archerd added dozens of credits to her name, her first being a 1973 episode of The Brady Bunch, in which she was credited as “2nd P.T.A. Lady,” according to her IMDb filmography. More than a decade later, she worked on the 1988 reunion telefilm A Very Brady Christmas and in The Brady Bunch Movie (1995). She also guest-starred on the TV shows Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Marcus Welby, M.D., Hotel, Knots Landing, Cagney & Lacey, The Love Boat, and Roseanne.
Archerd was perhaps best known for her role as Nurse Amy on Melrose Place. The actress appeared on the series for 25 episodes from 1995 through 1999. She also notably played Mrs. Claus in Richard Donner’s Scrooged in 1988 and was one of the Nakatomi Corp. employees taken hostage in John McTiernan’s Die Hard that same year. Her other credits include an appearance as a policewoman in Lethal Weapon (1987) and Officer Selma in Lethal Weapon 3 (1992), Charmed, W.C. Fields, Me, Harry and Walter Go to New York, Fun With Dick and Jane, Martin Scorsese’s New York, New York, Mommie Dearest, and Indecent Proposal.
Archerd is preceded in death by Army, who died in 2009 at age 87. She is survived by two sons, James Rosenblum and Richard Rosenblum, and a grandson, Ryan Rosenblum. The family requested that donations be made in Archerd’s memory to the Culver City, California-based Exceptional Children’s Foundation.
