Valerie Perrine, the actress who starred alongside Gene Hackman in the original Superman films and won the Best Actress award at Cannes, died Monday at her Los Angeles, California, residence. She was 82.
Her close friend, filmmaker Stacey Souther, confirmed Perrine's death, according to TMZ. Her exact cause of death was not revealed, though Souther noted in a Facebook post that Perrine had battled Parkinson's disease for 15 years.
The famous actress spent Sunday re-watching her movies, according to TMZ. She was gone the next day.
Perrine belonged to a generation of actresses who built careers on talent and screen presence rather than social media followings and activist posturing.
According to the Daily Caller, she took home the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, earned a BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer, and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
Those are the kinds of honors that used to mean something unambiguous: that you were exceptional at your craft. No diversity metrics. No identity checkboxes. Just performance.
She and Hackman starred alongside one another in the 1978 Superman film as well as 1980's Superman II, two movies that understood something Hollywood has largely forgotten: audiences want genuinely heroic heroes, genuinely entertaining villains, and stories that don't lecture.
The death of her co-star and beloved friend, Gene Hackman, reportedly took a toll on Perrine. Fifteen years of Parkinson's is its own kind of war. Losing someone close at the end of that fight carries a weight most of us can only imagine.
Her dying wish, according to Souther, was to be buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills. Loved ones are raising money for her funeral through a GoFundMe page launched by Souther.
There is something quietly devastating about a woman who lit up screens worldwide needing a crowdfunding campaign for her burial. Hollywood celebrates its own with lavish ceremonies and endless self-congratulation.
It is less reliable when the cameras stop rolling, and the bills come due. The industry's generosity has always been performative first, practical second.
Perrine's passing is a reminder of a Hollywood that operated on different terms. Stars weren't brands. Awards weren't campaigns. An actress could build a legacy by simply being extraordinary at her job.
She spent her last Sunday watching the work she left behind. That says everything about what mattered to her.
The rest of us would do well to remember it, too.