Rebecca Balding, ‘Soap’ and ‘Charmed’ Actress, Dead at 73

Rebecca Balding, who played Phoebe Halliwell’s boss on Charmed, has died. She was 73. Balding also starred in the ABC soap opera parody series Soap. She also starred in episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 and Melrose Place.

Balding died after a battle with ovarian cancer, her husband, actor-director James L. Conway, told Deadline. The actress died on July 18 in Park City, Utah. She is also survived by her daughters Sarah and Kathleen, and her grandchildren.

Balding was born on Sept. 21, 1948, in Little Rock, Arkansas, and attended the University of Kansas. She made her television debut in a 1976 episode of The Bionic Woman and appeared in Starsky & Hutch, Lou Grant, The Gathering, Barnaby Jones, and The Rockford Files before she joined Soap in 1978. Susan Harris’ Soap was a unique sitcom parodying daytime soap operas that ran four seasons between 1977 and 1981. Balding played Carol David, the mother ofJodie Dallas’ (Billy Crystal) daughter. After Carol decides against marrying Jodie, she kidnaps the child in Season 3. Soap is streaming for free on Tubi.

After Soap, Balding found a main role in Makin’ It, an infamous ABC sitcom that aired just nine episodes in 1979. The show was inspired by the disco fad and even featured Saturday Night Fever star John Travolta’s sister Ellen Travolta, but since disco’s popularity was waning by the time the series debuted, it was quickly canceled. Balding’s other TV credits include episodes of Cagney & Lacey, Family Ties, MacGyver, and Hotel.

In 1997, she starred in two episodes of Beverly Hill, 90210 as Jill Abernathy. Although Melrose Place is set in the same universe, she played a different role in two episodes of that series. She also appeared in an episode of ER in 2000.

Charmed gave Balding her best-known TV role. She had a recurring part as Elise Rothman, the editor of The Bay Mirror newspaper, where Alyssa Milano’s Phoebe worked. Elise first appeared in Season 4 and went on to appear in several more episodes before the show ended in 2006. Balding also had a minor role in a Season 1 episode as a different character. Balding only made a handful of movies, appearing in the horror films The Silent Scream (1979) and The Boogens (1981). Her last movie was Yesterday’s Deam (2005).