Bunny Levine,‘Gilmore Girls’ and ‘La La Land’ actress, dead at 97

Bunny Levine, a former school librarian who built a second career in Hollywood with roles in “Gilmore Girls” and “La La Land,” has died. She was 97.

The New Jersey-born actress died peacefully in her sleep Thursday at her home in Tarzana, Calif., NBCLA reported.

Police responded to her home after receiving a report of an unresponsive person and said her death appeared to be from natural causes.

Levine worked as a school librarian and teacher in Teaneck, NJ, for about 25 years and didn’t launch her Hollywood career until the late 1980s, when she was almost 60.

She appeared in some of television’s biggest shows as a character actress, including “Gilmore Girls,” where she played Mrs. Thompson, and “Everybody Loves Raymond,” where she played a friend of Ray’s mom, Marie, who kept dropping things while admiring Ray’s bottom.

Her credits also included “Law & Order,” “Ugly Betty,” “Private Practice,” “Criminal Minds,” “2 Broke Girls,” “Raising Hope,” “Southland,” “New Girl,” “The Mindy Project,” “Fuller House” and “Shameless,” according to her IMDb page.

In 2014, she notably starred alongside the late James Van Der Beek in an episode of “Friends With Better Lives,” which aired for one season on CBS.

On the big screen, she had a small role as a movie theater cashier in “La La Land,” the 2016 musical starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone.

She also appeared in Adam Sandler’s “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan” (2008), “Sandy Wexler” (2017) and “You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah” (2023).

Levine kept working into her mid-90s, with her final roles including the last season of “The Upshaws” and Mrs. Polanski in the 2026 movie “The Cure” — her final film role.

Her first professional acting credit was the 1988 horror-comedy “Slime City” when she was 59.

Levine was born Dec. 22, 1928, in East Orange, NJ, where she grew up and attended East Orange High School, and performed in school and local productions from an early age.

After graduating from Washington State University in 1951, Levine returned to New Jersey, where she became a school librarian and teacher, raising three children with her husband, Bernard.

Living in the Pacific Northwest was “a culture shock at first” after growing up on the East Coast, she told Washington State Magazine in 2013.

After Bernard died in 2003, Levine moved from the New York area to Los Angeles, where she began booking commercials and acting jobs.

She once spoke about what drew her to acting, a career she had dreamt of since childhood, after decades in education.

“I don’t know that many of us could explain why — it’s just something. Maybe it’s in the genes,’ Levine told the Daily Evergreen in March 2025.

“I don’t know if there was any ‘moment.’ I just plugged along, and I would go study and try to get better at my crafts.”

“I feel very blessed to have been able to get back to what I had always wanted since early memory. I wish that everyone could find that happiness,” she added.