Bunny Levine, who left a 25-year career as a school librarian to become a working actor and landed roles in “Gilmore Girls,” “La La Land” and several Adam Sandler comedies, died at age 97 on August 20, 2026, at her home in Tarzana, California.
She died peacefully in her sleep, according to her manager, Brandon Kjar, who confirmed the death on Sunday, August 23, to CBS News. Officers with the Los Angeles Police Department went to the home that morning on a report of an unresponsive person, and the department said the death appeared natural.
“She was a great and fearless actress and such a nice lady,” Kjar said.
In an emailed statement, her agent, Mike Eisenstadt, gave CBS News that same sentence word for word, then added, “What a full life. She will be missed.” Kjar also said Levine was still going out for roles at 97, and that her last job came in June.
A Librarian’s Long Detour
Born Bernice Utal on December 22, 1928, in East Orange, New Jersey, she knew almost from the start that she wanted to perform. The ambition simply had to wait. For 25 years after high school Levine set it aside, working as a school librarian, raising three children and earning master’s degrees from New York University and Columbia University.
Retirement pointed her in a new direction rather than slowing her down. She enrolled in acting classes and began auditioning, chasing the career she had postponed for a quarter-century. When her husband, Bernard “Bernie” Levine, died in 2003, she moved to Los Angeles and got down to work.
Both halves of that life left a mark on people, her family said in a statement — the decades in schools and the decades on camera.
The Actors Connection Years
Hollywood came second; New York came first. In 1991, Levine and her husband of 53 years launched the Actors Connection in New York City, an organization built to guide performers through the industry and put them in front of the people doing the hiring. According to her family, the couple helped a great many actors move their careers ahead there.
“Her passion for helping actors has launched countless careers,” the group said in a statement following her death, thanking Levine for creating a community for the artists she loved.
A Career Built on Guest Spots
Read straight through, her television résumé plays like a survey course in the past 30 years of American TV: “Law & Order,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “Gilmore Girls,” “Ugly Betty,” “Private Practice,” “Criminal Minds,” “2 Broke Girls,” “Raising Hope,” “Southland,” “New Girl,” “Getting On,” “The Mindy Project,” “Fuller House,” “Shameless” and “Dave.”
Her film work stretched from “Slime City” and “The Jimmy Show” to “A Thousand Words” and “La La Land.” She turned up in 2008 in “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan,” the comedy starring actor and comedian Adam Sandler. The two worked together again on “Sandy Wexler” in 2017 and on the 2023 Netflix film “You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah.”
The jobs kept coming deep into her 90s. Among her more recent credits are “The Invisible Raptor” in 2023 and two 2024 releases: “Sacramento,” directed by actor and filmmaker Michael Angarano and starring Kristen Stewart and Michael Cera, and “Thelma,” the comedy led by veteran actress June Squibb. Levine showed up for the Los Angeles premiere of “Thelma” at The Egyptian Theatre Hollywood on June 14, 2024.
Audiences saw her again in 2026, in the final season of “The Upshaws” and in “The Cure.”
Services Set for August 27
Survivors include her three children — Marty, Francie and Joe — and two grandchildren, Robin and Jeffrey.
The Jewish Memorial Chapel in Clifton, New Jersey, will host services at 1 p.m. Thursday, August 27. Donations in her memory may go to the Entertainment Community Fund.
Hers is the familiar Hollywood story run in reverse. The usual version has actors showing up young, hungry and unattached, then fading out once the auditions stop. Levine came late, after a full career and a full house, and stayed. She spent 25 years shelving other people’s stories before she began telling her own — and at 97 she was still auditioning.