Joe Kidd star Lynne Marta dies at 78

Joe Kidd star Lynne Marta dies at 78

The Footloose and Starsky & Hutch star passes away after battle with cancer... just weeks after death of her ex-partner David Soul.

Actress Lynne Marta died Thursday at the age of 78 in her home in Los Angeles following a cancer battle. Marta's friend Chris Saint-Hilaire confirmed her passing to The Hollywood Reporter. 

Marta spent four decades in show business, with her most prominent work coming in the movies Footloose and Joe Kidd; and on the TV shows Love, American Style, Starsky & Hutch, Barnaby Jones, The F.B.I. and Medical Center. Marta's death comes weeks after the January 4 passing of her longtime lover, Starsky & Hutch actor David Soul, at the age of 80. In 1983, she described their relationship to People as an 'open relationship,' as Soul had been married at the time to actress Karen Carlson.

The magazine reported at the time that throughout the Starsky & Hutch years from 1975-1979, 'David and Lynne lived together but spent time with other people.' Marta would appear with her late lover on his 1977 special, David Soul and Friends. Marta had previously been married to late actor Brick Huston from 1968-1975. He died in August of 2018. 

Marta, who was born October 31, 1948 in Somerville, New Jersey, was the younger daughter of father George, who served as the state's air and water pollution commissioner. 

In the 1972 film Joe Kidd for filmmaker John Sturges, Marta played Elma, the partner of landowner Frank Harlan (Robert Duvall), who would catch the attention of the film's titular bounty hunter character, portrayed by Clint Eastwood.

The actress played the role of Lulu Warnicker, the aunt of Kevin Bacon's Ren character, in the 1984 film Footloose. 

On TV, she had also been features on a number of shows produced by the late Aaron Spelling, including The Mod Squad, Charlie's Angels, The Rookies, Matt Houston and Vega$. She also had worked on a number of series produced by the late Quinn Martin, such as The Streets of San Francisco, Dan August, Cannon, Caribe and The Manhunter.

Marta's first appearances in front of the camera came on The Lloyd Thaxton Show, a dance show. In 1966, she appeared on the TV shows Gidget and The Monkees, paving the way for her to land a spot on Love, American Style. She had appeared in a pilot in 1973 for a sci-fi series penned by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry titled Genesis II, but ABC did not pick it up. Other TV shows Marta made appearances on included Gunsmoke, Kojak, Marcus Welby, M.D., The Rockford Files, Trapper John, M.D., Knight Rider, Designing Women, Law & Order and ER, with her final role coming on the 2004 show American Dreams.

Her work also spanned soap operas such as Days of Our Lives, The Young and the Restless and Passions. On the silver screen, Marta had been seen in movies such as 2002's Time of Fear, 1990's Three Men and a Little Lady, 1980's Blood Beach, 1974's Help Me … I'm Possessed and 1971's Red Sky at Morning.

The actress was also in proximity to one of the grimmest events in Hollywood history, when My Sister Sam actress Rebecca Schaeffer was murdered at the age of 21 on July 18, 1989 at her Los Angeles home by Robert John Bardo, a fan who was obsessed with her. Marta was a neighbour of Schaeffer, and testified in Bardo's trial about hearing the gunshots that claimed the life of the up-and-coming actress, according to the Los Angeles Times. 

RIP