Bunny Levine, a librarian who took early retirement and then began acting on such shows as Gilmore Girls and Shameless as well as two Adam Sandler films, has died, according to multiple reports. She was 97.
Levine graduated from college in 1951 and became a school librarian in New Jersey, where she worked before deciding to try acting full time. Levine had wanted to perform since childhood.
“I don’t know why. I don’t know that many of us could explain why — it’s just something,” she told her alma mater’s student newspaper, The Daily Evergreen, in 2025. “Maybe it’s in the genes.”
Whatever it was, the diminutive actress (she was 4’10”) worked steadily on network television for the better part of four decades, mostly in single episode appearances as a character called “Old Lady,” Kindly Older Woman” or “Grandma.” Among the titles: As the World Turns, Law & Order, Chappelle’s Show, Everybody Loves Raymond, Las Vegas, Private Practice, Ugly Betty, Community, Criminal Minds, 2 Broke Girls, The Mindy Project, Fuller House and Mayans M.C.
In film, one of her first appearances came in 1990’s Cadillac Man, starring Robin Williams and Tim Robbins. She was cast opposite Adam Sandler in Don’t Mess With the Zohan (as “Older lady in the salon”) and in an uncredited role as the main character’s grandmother in Sandy Wexler.
Also on the big screen, Levine played a movie theater cashier in La La Land, Mrs. Grossman in Let Go and Mona opposite June Squibb in 2024’s Thelma.
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