Musical comedy star and Oscar-winning actress Celeste Holm, 95, died of a heart attack yesterday at her home in New York City.
Holm had been hospitalized for two weeks with dehydration. She asked her husband, Frank Basile, to take her home on Friday and spent her last days with her family and friends, according to Amy Phillips, Holm's great-niece.
"She passed peacefully in her home in her own bed with her husband and friends and family nearby," Phillips told CNN.
Holm's career in show business, which lasted more than 70 years, began in 1939 in the cast of William Saroyan's "The Time of Your Life". But it was her role as the lusty Ado Annie Carnes in the original 1943 Broadway musical "Oklahoma!" that drew world-wide attention.
In the late 1940s, Holm made a successful transition to Hollywood. She won the Academy Award in 1947 for best supporting actress for "Gentleman's Agreement" and was nominated in Academy Award for "Come to the Stable" (1949) and "All about Eve" (1950).
Holm also was known for her charity work. She was a board member of the National Mental Health Association.
Holm retired from Hollywood in 2009 at age 92, five years after she married her fifth husband Frank Basile, who was 46 years younger than her.
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