Actress Barbara Bosson is probably best known for portraying Fay Furillo on the show “Hill Street Blues.” Other notable roles include “Murder One,” “The Last Starfighter” and “Cop Rock.”
Unfortunately, on February 20, 2023, her son, Jesse Bochco, took to Instagram to confirm the sad news of his mother’s death. He shared a picture of the two of them together when he was only a toddler. He was wearing a red coat and holding a bottle while his mother held him. Both smiled at the camera.
Bochco wrote, “More spirit and zest than you could shake a stick at. When she loved you, you felt it without a doubt. If she didn’t, you may well have also known that too. Forever in our hearts. I love you Mama. Barbara “Babs” Bosson Bochco 1939-2023.”
View this post on Instagram
Bochco did not mention a cause of death. Bosson was 83 years old.
Bosson was born in 1939 and grew up in a suburb of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. She was only 3 years old when she decided that she wanted to be an actress, and right after high school she moved to New York City to pursue her dream. She once said that going to NYC “was like going to Paris or London for me, I’d been so sheltered at home.”
She attended Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie-Mellon) to study drama. That’s where she first met Steven Bochco, the man she would eventually marry; although, when they first met, he was already married. Later, in Los Angeles, they bumped into each other again. This time, Bochco wasn’t married.
Bosson and Bochco got married in 1970 and had two children together. Their first child was a daughter named Melissa. In 1975, Jesse joined their family.
Bosson and Bochco often intertwined their personal and professional lives. Bochco wrote and created multiple TV shows, and he cast his wife on several of those shows including “Hill Street Blues” and “Murder One.”
Bochco once said, “The only rule I have about working with friends and loved ones is that I’m not going to penalize them for it, but if they’re not better than the next person on the list, I’m not going to hire them, either.”
Bosson admitted that she sometimes found it difficult to work with her husband. She once explained, “The only thing I have trouble with — and I can handle it — is that Steven is so used to being an executive.” She added, “I bristle at having someone else in charge. I have to get aggressive, and say, ‘Look, this is the way it will be’—and he backs down immediately.”
After 27 years of marriage, Bosson and Bochco got divorced in 1997. Bochco later died in 2018.
Bosson is survived by her children and two grandchildren. She was 83 years old.
Rest in peace.
