Sharon Farrell, 'Young and the Restless' Star, Dead at 82

Veteran actress Sharon Farrell, who played Florence "Flo" Webster on CBS' The Young and the Restless and also starred in the sci-fi horror movie It's Alive, has died. Farrell passed away unexpectedly at Los Angeles Downtown Medical Center on May 15, her sister announced on Facebook, adding that she was unsure of the actress' cause of death. Her son, Chance Boyer, told The Hollywood Reporter his mother died of natural causes. Farrell was 82.

Born Sharon Forsmoe on Christmas Eve in 1940 in Sioux City, Iowa, Farrell moved to New York, where she acted and modeled, according to the Sioux City Journal. She made her film debut in 1959's Kiss Her Goodbye before going on to dance on Broadway, where she was an understudy to Jane Fonda in the play There Was a Little Girl, and land TV roles throughout the '60s, at which time she was going by the stage name Sharon Farrell, reportedly a combination of the first letter of Forsmoe and her father's first name, Darrel. In 1962, she starred alongside Nick Adams on the short-lived NBC newspaper drama Saints and Sinners and also appeared with Tony Curtis and Suzanne Pleshette in the comedy film 40 Pounds of Trouble.

Farrell is well-known for her role as Lenore Davis, the mother of a murderous deformed infant, in the 1974 horror thriller It's Alive, written and directed by Larry Cohen and featuring special effects make-up from Rick Baker. She also starred as Det. Lori Wilson in the final season of the original Hawaii Five-O. She is also best known for her role as Florence "Flo" Webster, the mother of Tricia Cast's Nina Webster, on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless. She starred on the long-running soap from 1991 until 1997, at which point her onscreen counterpart left Genoa City and moved to Los Angeles.

Throughout her seven-decade career, Farrell appeared on My Favorite Martian, Wagon Train, Gunsmoke, and The Beverly Hillbillies, among many others. Her credits also include A Lovely Way to Die (1968), Not With My Wife, You Don't! (1966), Jacqueline Susann's The Love Machine (1971), Night of the Comet (1984), The Stunt Man (1980), Lone Wolf McQuade (1983), and Can't Buy Me Love (1987). She last appeared in a supporting role in the 2013 web series Broken at Love.

Farrell is survived by her son Chance, who played a surfer in the '90s syndicated TV series Harry and the Hendersons and was on General Hospital, as well as her grandson, Wayde, and daughter-in-law Mandi.