Wendie Jo Sperber dies

Wendie Jo Sperber, the animated comedic actress who played supporting roles in some of the funniest TV shows and movies of the 1980s, died yesterday in Los Angeles after a seven-year battle with breast cancer. She was 47.

Sperber was adept at fashioning shrill, hyperactive characters who were simultaneously annoying and lovable. She is best known as Amy Cassidy, the bumbling ad executive from Bosom Buddies, the 1981 sitcom that starred Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari as two guys who must dress up as women so they can live in an all-female New York apartment building.

After Bosom Buddies ended, Sperber appeared in the highest grossing film of 1985: the blockbuster time-travel movie Back to the Future. As boy-crazy Linda McFly, older sister to Marty McFly (played by fellow sitcom star Michael J. Fox), Sperber whined to her parents, "If I don't call guys, how am I supposed to ever meet anyone?" She also appeared in the sequel Back to the Future, Part 3.

In addition, Sperber had roles in many high-profile comedy films and TV series of the late '70s and early '80s. In the 1979 Steven Spielberg film 1941, she played the part of a jitterbugging, man-crazy Maxine Manheimer. A cross between Animal House and M*A*S*H*, 1941 was a box-office disaster, although one of the high points of the film is a climactic dance scene involving Treat Williams and Sperber.

Up next was the Robert Zemeckis comedy Used Cars, starring Kurt Russell, and the short-lived Pvt. Benjamin TV series, which was based on the hit Goldie Hawn comedy. The 1984 surprise hit Bachelor Party paired her with former Bosom buddy Tom Hanks, and she followed this with a pair of saucy teen comedies, Moving Violations and Stewardess School. She returned to television in Babes, and played Mavis Davis on the John Ritter/Markie Post sitcom Hearts Afire. More recently, Sperber appeared on the ABC series 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Daughter.

In 1997, Sperber was diagnosed with breast cancer. Following this, she became an advocate for cancer awareness and formed the organization weSPARK Cancer Support Center. In 1999, the Los Angeles County Commission for Women named her its Woman of the Year.

In a statement, Hanks said, "The memory of Wendie Jo is that of a walking inspiration. She met the challenges of her illness with love, cheer, joy, and altruism. We are going to miss her as surely as we are all better for knowing her."