Olympia Dukakis, the Academy Award-winning actress, died Saturday at her home in New York City, her representative Allison Levy confirmed. Dukakis was 89. Levy did not specify the cause of death, though her brother, Apollo Dukakis, wrote on Facebook that his sister passed away "after many months of failing health."
Dukakis won her Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1988 for her performance in the 1987 romantic comedy Moonstruck alongside Cher, who played her onscreen daughter (Cher also won an Oscar for her role).
The same year as Dukakis' victory, her cousin, former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, was the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. She referred to 1988 as the "year of the Dukakii," though her cousin ultimately lost to George H.W. Bush.
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Before Moonstruck, Dukakis had already had a decades-long stage career, and she later earned three Emmy nominations for her television work.
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