Actor Shelley Morrison, Best Known For Playing Rosario On “Will & Grace,” Has Died At 83

Actress Shelley Morrison, whom fans of the long-running NBC series Will & Grace came to know as Rosario Salazar, died Sunday. She was 83.

Morrison’s publicist, Lori DeWaal, told the Associated Press that the actor died of heart failure at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Though Morrison was only intended to appear in one Will & Grace episode, Rosario quickly became a fan-favorite character, and Morrison went on to play Karen Walker’s housekeeper for 68 episodes of the show’s original run. She did not reprise the role for NBC’s revival of the sitcom; rather, Rosario passed away off-screen in a November 2017 installment.

Morrison was also known for her work on The Flying Nun, where she co-starred as Puerto Rican nun Sister Sixto. Sister Sixto wanted to fit in by using American slang but completely mangled the language. Morrison had a recurring role in the soap opera General Hospital in 1982.

Shelley Morrison was born in the South Bronx as Rachel Mitrani and also known as Rachel Domínguez on October 26, 1936. The only daughter of Sephardic Jewish parents, originally surnamed Mitrani. She was raised in New York, and her first language was Spanish. Her father, Maurice Morris, was a clothing manufacturer. Morrison moved to California with her parents in 1946.

Morrison went on to study acting at Los Angeles City College and landed early film roles in Divorce American Style and How to Save a Marriage (And Ruin Your Life).

From 1965 to 1967, she appeared four times as an American Indian, Linda Little Trees, in the NBC western television series Laredo (in the episodes “Yahoo”, “Jinx”, “No Bugles, One Drum”, and “Split the Difference.”)

In 1967, she capitalized on her own experiences learning English to play the Puerto Rican nun, Sister Sixto, who had trouble with English in Sally Field’s show The Flying Nun. She would keep this role until the show was canceled in 1970. Morrison also appeared in the 1997 romantic comedy film Fools Rush In, starring Salma Hayek and Matthew Perry.

Morrison’s most widely recognized role was as the Salvadoran maid Rosario Inés Consuelo Yolanda Salazar on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace. She appeared in 68 episodes from 1999 to 2006 (as well as a brief cameo appearance on the September 2016 Will & Grace webisode in support of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign). Rosario married Karen’s gay friend Jack McFarland (Sean Hayes) to prevent her impending deportation.

Among approximately 25 film appearances and 200 television appearances, Morrison portrayed a maid or housekeeper on 32 separate occasions. Morrison had just informed her agent not to offer her anymore “maid parts” when the call came for Will & Grace.

In 2017, NBC revived Will & Grace for a new series of episodes. On August 3, 2017, co-creator Max Mutchnick announced to reporters that Morrison had been asked to reprise her role as Salazar on the show, but that she had ultimately decided to retire completely from acting. Although her last official acting role was a voiceover in the 2012 animated film Foodfight!, her final appearance as an actress was the 2016 election-themed webisode of Will & Grace.

Health and death
Morrison died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on December 1, 2019, as a result of heart failure after a brief illness. She was 83 years old.