The Oscar-nominated star of ‘Lenny’ “faced Parkinson’s disease with incredible courage and compassion,” announced a friend on social media
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NEED TO KNOW
- Screen actress Valerie Perrine died at age 82 on March 23
- The Oscar-nominated Lenny star was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease over 15 years ago, per a GoFundMe set up in her name
- Perrine was known for her work in Superman, Superman II, The Electric Horseman and more
Valerie Perrine, known for her decades of work on the big and small screens, has died. She was 82.
“It is with deep sadness that I share the heartbreaking news that Valerie has passed away,” wrote friend Stacey Souther in a Monday, March 23 Facebook post also shared on the actress' page.
The Superman actress “faced Parkinson’s disease with incredible courage and compassion, never once complaining. She was a true inspiration who lived life to the fullest—and what a magnificent life it was. The world feels less beautiful without her in it.”
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Per Souther’s GoFundMe fundraiser shared in that post, Perrine “passed away peacefully at her home on March 23, 2026, surrounded by love, exactly as she had wished.” The “luminous, vivacious” Oscar nominee waged “a quiet, courageous battle against both Parkinson's disease and debilitating central tremors” for more than 15 years, it said.
The fundraiser was “created with the full support and blessing of her brother, Ken Perrine, who himself continues to battle this devastating disease,” its description added.
Born in Galveston, Texas, to a professional dancer mother and U.S. Army colonel father, Perrine began her performance career as a showgirl in Las Vegas. She made a feature film debut in the 1972 adaptation of Slaughterhouse-Five and broke out as Honey Bruce, wife to Dustin Hoffman's Lenny Bruce, in Bob Fosse's 1974 biopic Lenny. Perrine’s performance earned her nominations at the Academy Awards, British Academy Film Awards and Golden Globes.
Her best-known role was in the 1978 and 1980 Christopher Reeve-starring Superman films as Eve Teschmacher, secretary and accomplice to Gene Hackman’s Lex Luthor. In 1979, she played Charlotta Bell, onscreen wife to Robert Redford, in The Electric Horseman.
Perrine posed for Playboy and was regarded as a sex symbol in the 1970s. Per Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, she also bore the distinction of being the first woman to intentionally expose her breasts on the small screen in 1973 TV movie Steambath. Her final credited screen performance was the 2015 film Silver Skies.
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A Hollywood Reporter profile in 2023 shed light on Perrine’s dating history, which included hairstylist boyfriend Jay Sebring — one of the victims of the 1969 Manson Family murders. Sebring had invited Perrine to that party as she was working as a topless dancer in a Las Vegas revue; the actress was unable to attend after an understudy fell ill.
“Valerie's final wish was simple and deeply meaningful: to be laid to rest at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills, in the city that shaped her destiny,” Souther wrote in the GoFundMe dedicated to Perrin. She “gave everything she had to her craft, her fans, and her life — with grace, humor, and an indomitable spirit that Parkinson's itself could never fully extinguish. Let's make sure her final chapter is written with the same dignity and love that she gave to all of us.”
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