Norma Crane

Norma Crane (born Norma Anna Bella Zuckerman; November 10, 1928 — September 28, 1973) was an actress of stage, film and television. Among her best-known roles was that of Golde in the 1971 film adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof. She starred in They Call Me Mister Tibbs! and Penelope. She was born in New York City but raised in El Paso, Texas.

Born to a Jewish family in New York City and raised in El Paso, Crane studied drama at Texas State College for Women in Denton, and was a member of Elia Kazan's Actors Studio. She made her debut on Broadway in Arthur Miller's play The Crucible.

Throughout the 1950s, she appeared on a variety of live television dramas, first gaining recognition in a televised adaptation of George Orwell's 1984. She played Ellie Martin in Vincente Minnelli's film version of Tea and Sympathy. She appeared in the 1956 Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "There Was an Old Woman" the 1958 episode "The Equalizer" and the 1959 episode “Appointment at Eleven”. She guest-starred four times on the CBS western television series Have Gun – Will Travel with Richard Boone. She appeared on an episode of ABC's The Untouchables as Lily Dallas, a ruthless gang leader, and she appeared in two other episodes.

In 1960, Crane appeared as Sarah Prentice in the episode "River Champion" of the NBC western series Riverboat starring Darren McGavin. A few weeks later, Crane was cast as Sarah in the episode "Deadly Tomorrow" of the ABC adventure series The Islanders, set in the South Pacific.

In 1961, Crane guest-starred in the title role in the episode "The Return of Widow Brown" of the NBC western The Deputy. She also appeared on television that year in an episode titled "Perce" on Gunsmoke, as well as in an episode of The Asphalt Jungle. In 1965, Crane guest-starred as Mrs. Mavis Hull in The Fugitive episode "Masquerade" as well as a 1968 episode of The Flying Nun.

In 1961, she married writer-producer Herb Sargent; the marriage ended in divorce.

Crane died of breast cancer, aged 44, in Los Angeles, California, two years after the release of Fiddler on the Roof (1971), her last film. She is interred at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.