Shelley Morrison, best known as Will & Grace’s Rosario Salazar, has died at the age of 83. According to the Associated Press, the actress’s publicist Lori DeWaal confirmed she passed away Sunday at Los Angeles’s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center of “heart failure after a brief illness.” Per The Hollywood Reporter, Morrison’s turn as Karen Walker’s sardonic housekeeper was initially written as a single-episode character. However, her comedic pairing with Megan Mullally proved so successful she returned for 67 more episodes in the show’s initial run. Morrison was also reportedly asked back to Will & Grace when it was revived by NBC in 2017 but had decided to retire from acting. Her character was subsequently laid to rest in the sixth episode of the show’s ninth season, “Rosario’s Quinceañera.”
In addition to appearing in Will & Grace, Morrison was featured in a wide variety of TV and film roles, including parts in The Flying Nun, Troop Beverly Hills, Fools Rush In, and Shark Tale. Most recently, she voiced Mrs. Portillo on Disney’s Handy Manny from 2006 until 2012. Following the news of her death, the actress’s NBC co-stars remembered her on social media as “a beautiful soul and a wonderful actor.”
