‘Lost,’ ‘Babylon 5’ actress Mira Furlan dead at 65

LOS ANGELES — Actress Mira Furlan, known for her roles on “Lost” and “Babylon 5,” died at her Los Angeles home on Wednesday. She was 65.

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The cause of death was complications of the West Nile virus, Chris Roe, Furlan’s manager, told The New York Times.

Furlan played Minbari Ambassador Delenn in “Babylon 5,” a science fiction drama that ran from 1993 to 1998. The Croatian actress won two Sci-Fi Universe Awards for best supporting actress for her work on the show, the Times reported. Furlan appeared in all 111 episodes and in two “Babylon 5” television movies, the newspaper reported.

She also played Danielle Rousseau in 19 episodes of “Lost” from 2004 to 2010.

Furlan’s Twitter account announced her death on Thursday and “Babylon 5” creator J. Michael Straczynski posted a tribute to the actress later that night, Variety reported.

pic.twitter.com/uVlatjUocZ
— Mira Furlan (@FurlanMira) January 22, 2021

Straczynski said the cast and crew of “Babylon 5” had “known for some time now that Mira’s health was fading,” Variety reported.

“We kept hoping that she would improve,” Straczynsk said. “In a group email sent to the cast a while back, I heard that she might be improving.”

However, Straczynski told the website he later got the call from “Babylon 5” co-star Peter Jurasik that Furlan’s husband, director Goran Gajić, was “bringing her home.”

It is a night of great sadness, for our friend and comrade had gone down the road where we cannot reach her. But as with all things, we will catch up with her in time, and I believe she will have many stories to tell us, and many new roles to share with the universe. pic.twitter.com/HyQlqyC19v
— J. Michael Straczynski (@straczynski) January 22, 2021

Born in Zagreb on Sept. 7, 1955, Furlan appeared in the film “When Father Was Away on Business,” which won the Palme d’Or prize at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival, according to the BBC. It also received an Oscar nomination for best foreign-language film.

A Times story in 1997 called Furlan “the Balkan equivalent of Meryl Streep.”

She also appeared in “Beauty of Vice,” “Three For Happiness” and “In the Jaws of Life.”

Furlan emigrated to the U.S. with her husband in 1991 when war broke out in the former Yugoslavia.

Furlan wrote the play “Until Death Do Us Part,” set in Zagreb during the 1970s, the BBC reported.

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