<\/p>\n
Sarah Cunningham<\/strong>, an actress known for her roles on Trapper John, M.D. and Dallas, died on March 24, 1986, after she collapsed at the Oscars<\/a>. She was 67.<\/p>\n Cunningham suffered a fatal asthmatic attack while attending the Academy Awards<\/a> in Los Angeles, according to her New York Times obituary<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Los Angeles Times reported that Cunningham collapsed at the Oscars and was rushed to nearby Queen of Angels Hospital, where she died<\/a> an hour later. Her memorial service was held at the Ensemble Studio Theatre in Hollywood.<\/p>\n Born in Greenville, South Carolina, in September 1918, Cunningham moved to New York after graduating from Furman University. She studied acting with Stella Adler<\/strong> and eventually taught other students too. At Adler\u2019s acting classes, Cunningham met John Randolph<\/strong>, whom she married in 1942.<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfac <\/strong>SIGN UP for Parade’s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox<\/strong><\/a> \ud83c\udfac<\/strong><\/p>\n Along with Randolph, Cunningham was a founding member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York City in 1968. The pair often starred in its stage productions together. At the time of her death, Cunningham was serving as the board chairman of the Los Angeles company, which was formed in 1980.<\/p>\n Cunningham also acted in Broadway productions of The Visit, Fair Game and Toys in the Attic.<\/p>\n Outside of the theater world, Cunningham was known for her television credits. She notably appeared as Nurse Andrews on 30 episodes of the CBS<\/a> medical drama Trapper John, M.D.<\/a> during seasons 4 through 7, which aired from 1982 to 1986. (The M*A*S*H spinoff<\/a> starring Pernell Roberts<\/strong> as the titular doctor ran for seven seasons from 1979 to 1986.)<\/p>\n On the CBS primetime soap opera Dallas<\/a>, Cunningham had a recurring role as Aunt Maggie Monahan, the sister<\/a> of Digger Barnes (portrayed by David Wayne<\/strong>, Keenan Wynn<\/strong> and David Marshall Grant<\/strong> throughout the show\u2019s run). She appeared in five episodes, guest-starring during season 2 in 1978, season 3 in 1980 and season 8 in 1984. (Dallas, starring Larry Hagman<\/a><\/strong>, Patrick Duffy<\/strong>, Victoria Principal<\/strong> and more, aired for 14 seasons from 1978 to 1991.)<\/p>\n Throughout her career in television, Cunningham also appeared on episodes of The Wild World of Mystery, Baretta, The Rookies, Starsky and Hutch, Police Woman, How the West Was Won and Vegas.<\/p>\n Cunningham\u2019s film credits included 1972\u2019s The Cowboys, 1977\u2019s I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, 1982\u2019s Frances and 1985\u2019s Jagged Edge.<\/p>\n Cunningham was survived by her husband and their two children: daughter Martha and son Harrison.<\/p>\n The 1986 Academy Awards were hosted by Alan Alda<\/strong>, Jane Fonda<\/a><\/strong> and Robin Williams<\/a><\/strong> at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. Out of Africa won the most awards at the ceremony, with seven trophies including Best Picture. Other notable winners at the 58th Oscars were William Hurt<\/strong> for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Kiss of the Spider Woman, Geraldine Page<\/strong> for Best Actress in a Leading Role for The Trip to Bountiful, Don Ameche<\/strong> for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Cocoon and Anjelica Huston<\/strong> for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Prizzi\u2019s Honor.<\/p>\n This story was originally published by Parade<\/a> on Mar 24, 2026, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.aol.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sarah Cunningham, an actress known for her roles on Trapper John, M.D. and Dallas, died on March 24, 1986, after she collapsed at the Oscars. She was 67. Cunningham suffered a fatal asthmatic attack while attending the Academy Awards in Los Angeles, according to her New York Times obituary. The Los Angeles Times reported that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2343727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[344472,370654,349224,454483,454485,454482,22693,454484,344473,454481,353516,454486,392876],"class_list":["post-2343726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-academy-awards","tag-acting-classes","tag-dallas","tag-ensemble-studio-theatre","tag-furman-university","tag-john-randolph","tag-los-angeles","tag-m-d","tag-oscars","tag-sarah-cunningham","tag-stella-adler","tag-the-los-angeles-times","tag-trapper-john"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Remembering-Sarah-Cunningham-The-Trapper-John-MD-Star-Who-Died.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2343726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2343726"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2343726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2343728,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2343726\/revisions\/2343728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2343727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2343726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2343726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2343726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}