Oscar-Nominated Actress Penelope Milford Passes On
Penelope Milford has died at 77. The Coming Home star passed away on October 14 at an assisted living facility in Saugerties, New York. Her cause of death has not yet been revealed.
Born on March 23, 1948, in St. Louis, Missouri, Penelope built a career defined by quiet strength and emotional honesty. She earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Vi Munson in Hal Ashby’s Coming Home (1978), a Vietnam War drama that also starred Jane Fonda and Jon Voight.
In the film, Penelope played Vi, the roommate of Fonda’s character Sally Hyde. Vi is also the sister of Bill Munson, portrayed by Robert Carradine, a soldier who returns home from Vietnam emotionally scarred and living at a Veterans Administration hospital, the same place where Sally begins to volunteer.
Coming Home became one of the most celebrated films of its era, with Penelope standing alongside Jane and Jon as one of three cast members to receive Oscar nominations for their performances.
Over the following decades, Penelope continued to showcase her range across film, television and theater. She appeared as the silent film star Lorna Sinclair in Valentino, as Hugh Butterfield’s fiancée in Endless Love (1981), and as high school guidance counselor Pauline Fleming in the cult classic Heathers (1988). Her first film role came in Norman Mailer’s experimental 1970 film Maidstone.
Her stage work was equally impressive. In 1971, she starred in the off-Broadway musical Long Time Coming and a Long Time Gone alongside a then-unknown Richard Gere. A year later, she joined the Broadway cast of Lenny, a play about controversial comedian Lenny Bruce. In 1975, Penelope originated the role of Jenny Anderson in the Civil War musical Shenandoah, a performance that earned her a Drama Desk Award nomination.
Beyond acting, Penelope devoted her later years to teaching and performing. She taught acting in Chicago and Minneapolis throughout the 1990s, later returning to community theater in Saugerties, where she performed locally and sang with the Bard Symphonic Chorus.
The late actress is survived by her brother Douglas Milford and sister Candace Saint.
