Veteran 'Will and Grace' actress Shelley Morrison dies at 83

Her publicist Lori DeWaal told CNN that she died on Sunday from heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Shelley Morrison, best known for her role as maid Rosario Salazar in the U.S. comedy Will and Grace, has died at the age of 83 from heart failure following a short illness. "It was with a heavy heart that she gave us that information and that we received it", Will & Grace co-creator Max Mutchnick said in August 2017.

The character was actually only supposed to appear in one episode, but Rosario going toe-to-toe with Karen was so popular with viewers that the writers made her a regular.

'She reminds me a lot of my own mother, who loved animals and children, but she would not suffer fools. "It is very significant to me that we were able to show an older, Hispanic woman who is bright and smart and can hold her own".

"Such sad news. Our beloved Shelley Morrison passed away today", Hayes wrote.

Morrison's much-loved character worked as a maid for Grace's assistant, Karen Walker, and married her gay friend Jack McFarland in order to get a green card to stay in the country.

Morrison, an actress with a 50-year career who was best known for playing a memorable maid on "Will and Grace", has died.

Besides her role on "Will and Grace", Morrison was probably best known for playing Sister Sixto on "The Flying Nun" alongside Sally Field in the 1960s.

The stars of the show Debra Messing, Megan Mullally, Sean Hayes and Eric McCormack took to social media to express their grief after the news broke.

More recently, Morrison lent her voice to various projects, including episodes of the animated Disney Channel series Handy Manny.

Born to Sephardic Jewish parents who emigrated to the USA from Spain, Morrison appeared in 68 episodes of the pioneering LGBT comedy between 1999 and 2006.

Her movie roles put her in casts with Hollywood's biggest stars of several eras. "Shelley had recently celebrated her 83rd birthday". She was cast primarily as Latina characters, but she played a range of ethnicities in theatre, television and film.

Morrison is survived by her husband, Walter Dominguez, and six children, according to IMDb.