Cloris Leachman, acclaimed actor whose career spanned nine different decades, with numerous awards and accolades along the way, has passed away at the age of 94.

Leachman is perhaps best known for her role as Mary Richards' friend (and landlady), Phyllis Lindstrom, on the hit sitcom, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, for which Leachman won two Emmys for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (out of three nominations) and briefly starred in her own spinoff series, Phyllis (where she was nominated for the Emmy for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. She also won a Golden Globe for Phyllis).

However, her time as Phyllis was just a blip in a long and acclaimed career. Leachman got her start as a runner-up to the Miss America Pageant in 1946. She went to New York to study acting and she appeared in a number of theater roles. She was a prolific actor in the 1950s during the era of live TV movies. Besides a cameo in a 1947 film, she made her major motion picture debut in 1955's film noir classic Kiss Me Deadly.

After a brief regular stint on Lassie in 1957-58, Leachman settled into a distinguished career as a steady character actor in television in the 1960s (if you were a popular TV series, she likely made a guest appearance on your show, from 77 Sunset Strip to Perry Mason to Wagon Train to Gunsmoke to The Twilight Zone). Her career saw a resurgence after being cast in Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show, which won her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1971.

That role led to her Mary Tyler Moore gig and a string of acclaimed TV movies during the 1970s, winning an Emmy for Best Actress in a limited series or movie for A Brand New Life in 1973. She also picked up two Emmys in 1975 (one for Mary Tyler Moore Show and one for a guest spot on Cher's variety series).

The 1970s also saw Leachman begin her collaborations with director Mel Brooks, who featured her prominently in 1974's Young Frankenstein, 1977's High Anxiety and 1981's History of the World, Part I.

Leachman's TV movie skills continued with her winning a Daytime Emmy for Best Actress for the afterschool special, The Woman Who Willed a Miracle, in 1983. A year later, she won another Primetime Emmy for the special, Screen Actors Guild 50th Anniversary Celebration. She succeeded Charlotte Rae on the final two seasons of The Facts of Life as the maternal figure for the cast.

Leachman continued to work as a guest star on television shows and small roles in motion pictures. She won her seventh Primetime Emmy for a guest spot on Promised Land in 1998 and her eighth, and final, Primetime Emmy, for a guest spot on Malcolm in the Middle in 2005 (her second Emmy for her recurring role on Malcolm in the Middle as Lois' evil mother, Ida. She won the Guest Actress Emmy in 2003, as well). Leachman's eight Primetime Emmys are the second-most ever won by an actor (behind only Julia Louis-Dreyfus' nine).

Leachman continued to act, even appearing as a regular cast member on the sitcom, Raising Hope, from 2010-2014 (the show was unsure if she could actually be a regular on the show at first due to her age, so she was billed as just a guest in the first season, nabbing her final Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Best Guest Actress, before becoming a regular for the next three seasons).

Leachman was married to George Englund from 1953-1979. The couple had five children and Leachman is survived by four of her children and her six grandchildren (and one great-grandson).

Via Variety