Mary Pat Gleason death: Cinderella Story and Mom star dies aged 70

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Mary Pat Gleason, who starred in A Cinderella Story and Mom, has died at the age of 70.

Gleason’s manager confirmed that she died of cancer, telling Variety “she was a fighter to the end".

The actor was known for playing rollerskating waitress Eleanor in the 2004 Hilary Duff teen movie A Cinderella Story and eccentric AA member Mary in the American series Mom.

Over the course of her 40-year career, she had 174 on-screen roles, including parts in Will & Grace, Desperate Housewives, American Housewife, WTF 101, Basic Instinct, The Crucible and Intolerable Cruelty.

Her final film credit was in the 2018 Netflix movie Sierra Burgess Is a Loser, in which she played the high school guidance counsellor to Sierra (Shannon Purser) and the main cast of teenagers.

Gleason also won a daytime Emmy as part of the writing team on Guiding Light, the long-running radio and soap opera which aired for no less than 72 seasons. She starred in the series as Jane Horgan.