"7th Heaven" star Deborah Raffin passes away at 59

Deborah Raffin, actress and audiobook entrepreneur, passed away on Wednesday at the Ronald Regan UCLA Medical Centre. According to her brother, Raffin had been battling leukemia for the past year, and at the age of 59, tragically lost her battle with the blood disease.

Raffin is both a movie and television actress, but is perhaps best known for her recurring guest roles on television series “7^th Heaven” and more recently “The Secret Life of the American Teenager”. Raffin also started her own audiobook company, Dove audio books, with then husband Michael Viner which went on to become a multimillion dollar business. The company was sold in 1997, and Verner died of cancer in 2009.

Raffin was discovered by a talent scout as a college student while standing in an elevator, and ever since then went on to play blonde-bombshell roles in movies such as “The Ransom” and “40 Carats” in the 1970’s. Raffin was nominated for a Golden Globe in 1980 for her role opposite Diane Lane in 1980’s “Touched by Love”.

Raffin leaves behind two siblings, Michael and Judy, and her daughter Taylor Rose. Services will be held on Sunday at 1pm at the Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary in Culver City.