Audra Lindley was born in Los Angeles, California, to a show-business family--her father, Bert Lindley, was a stage and film actor. She got her early start in Hollywood by being a stand-in, which eventually progressed to stunt work. After a while, however, she found stunt work not to her liking and went to New York in her mid-20s to take her talent to the stage. Among her many Broadway plays were "On Golden Pond", "Playhouse 90", "Long Day's Journey in to Night", "Horse Heavens" and many others. She was married twice--once to actor James Whitmore--and raised five children. She appeared in many films and TV shows, and is probably best known for her work as the zany, randy yet lovable wife of skinflint landlord Mr. Roper on the hit series Three's Company (1976) (the character were later spun off into their own sitcom, The Ropers (1979)). She died in the fall of 1997 while doing recurring work on shows Cybill (1995) and Nothing Sacred (1997), after a battle with leukemia.