Mira Furlan, best known for her roles as Delenn in ‘Babylon 5’ and Danielle Rousseau on ‘Lost’, passed away on Wednesday. She was 65.
Her Twitter account announced the news on Thursday, and the creator of “Babylon 5”, J. Michael Straczynski, paid tribute to the actress later that evening.
– Mira Furlan (@FurlanMira) 22 January 2021
Although a cause of death has not yet been announced, Straczynski said the cast and crew of ‘Babylon 5’ had known for some time that Mira’s health was fading. “We kept hoping she would improve,” he wrote. “In a group email sent back to the cast a while back, I heard she might be improving.”
However, Straczynski said he later received a call from Peter Jurasik, co-star “Babylon 5”, that Furlan’s husband, director Goran Gajić, was “bringing her home”.
“Mira was a good and friendly woman, an amazingly talented artist and a friend to everyone in the cast and crew of ‘Babylon 5’, and we were all crushed by the news,” he wrote. ‘The cast members with whom she was especially close to the end of the program need space to process this moment. Be kind if they do not respond for a while. We have driven down this road all too often, and it is only getting harder. ”
It’s a night of great sadness because our friend and comrade went down the road where we could not reach her. But as with all things, we will catch up with her in time, and I believe she will have many stories to tell us, and many new roles to share with the universe. pic.twitter.com/HyQlqyC19v
– J. Michael Straczynski (@straczynski) 22 January 2021
Furlan was born in the former Yugoslavia, where she had a number of stage roles and was part of the Croatian National Theater, and emigrated to the USA in 1991. space station, in 1993, and would play its full five seasons in the series. In 2004, she made her debut in ABC’s mega-hit ‘Lost’ as Danielle Rousseau, a scientist who suffered a shipwreck 16 years before the Oceanic Flight 815 crash on the show’s mysterious island. She appeared in the series over the next few seasons. .
Furlan continued to perform last year and has garnered dozens of credits in film and TV throughout her life. Her film credits include Emirates Kusturica’s Oscar-nominated “When Father Was Away on Business,” “Beauty of Vice,” “Three For Happiness” and “In the Jaws of Life.”
She is survived by Gajić and their son, Marko Lav Gajić.