She was the first Western actress ever to make a movie promotion tour in China.Los Angeles (ANTARA News/Xinhua-OANA) - Deborah Raffin, a Hollywood film and television actress who was nominated for a Golden Globe award for her role as a caring nurse in the 1980 drama "Touched by Love," died Wednesday in Los Angeles. She was 59.
Raffin died at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center after fighting with leukemia for a year, her brother William told the Los Angeles Times.
Born on March 13, 1953, Raffin rose to fame by appearing in several box office hits including "40 Carats" (1973), "Once Is Not Enough" (1975) and "The Ransom" (1977). She also appeared in a number of television movies including "Mind Over Matter" (1979) and "Haywire" (1980).
The blonde Los Angeles native was the first Western actress ever to make a movie promotion tour in China after her 1976 television film "Nightmare in Badham County," in which she acted as a UCLA co-ed falsely imprisoned in Southern U.S., became a theatrical hit there in the early 80s. She was also popular with the Chinese audience when other films including "The Dove," a 1974 biographical film about an American sailor who spent five years sailing around the globe, and "Touched by Love," in which she played a compassionate nurse who cares for a teenage cerebral palsy patient, hit theaters in China.
Raffin earned a nomination for best drama actress Golden Globe for her role in "Touched by Love."
Services will be held Sunday at Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary in Culver City, according to reports.
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(T.C003/C/C003/C003) 23-11-2012 08:41:57
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