--- title: ‘Do as Shirley Did.’ Marcia Cross on Shirley Knight's Legacy description: Actor Marcia Cross remembers her 'Desperate Housewives' co-star Shirley Knight, who died on April 22 at 83, for her humor and work ethic. canonical: https://time.com/5829767/shirley-knight-obituary/ author: Marcia Cross article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-04-30T10:02:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T08:41:16.169Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Marcia Cross on the Legacy of Actor Shirley Knight og:description: Knight died on April 22 at 83 og:url: https://time.com/5829767/shirley-knight-obituary/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf473ff81b6cdc47/698a0d7d16d884d00dc38160/shirley-knight-obituary-social.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: shirley-knight-obituary-social og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Marcia Cross on the Legacy of Actor Shirley Knight twitter:description: Knight died on April 22 at 83 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf473ff81b6cdc47/698a0d7d16d884d00dc38160/shirley-knight-obituary-social.jpg?branch=production ---  # 'Do as Shirley Did.' Marcia Cross on the Legacy of Actor Shirley Knight by [Marcia Cross](https://time.com/author/marcia-cross/) ## Marcia Cross Apr 30, 2020 10:02 AM UTC  Shirley Knight in publicity portrait for the film "Sweet Bird Of Youth" in 1962. Shirley Knight in publicity portrait for the film "Sweet Bird Of Youth" in 1962.Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Getty Images by [Marcia Cross](https://time.com/author/marcia-cross/) ## Marcia Cross Apr 30, 2020 10:02 AM UTC Thinking about what I wanted to write about Shirley Knight, who died on April 22 at 83, I went back and looked at some of our work together on _Desperate Housewives_. Instead of being sad about her not being with us anymore, I found myself laughing hysterically. Shirley, who got her first Oscar nomination in 1961 and had won three Emmy Awards by the time we worked together, played my dead husband’s mother–and boy, did we get into it. Our characters were beautifully written, and we had a blast playing off each other. On camera, we sparred–and I once even slapped her across the face–but off camera, we got along famously. She was warm and funny and talked endlessly about her daughters, whom she loved dearly. She was a woman of no pretense, just a love of the work and of her life. I always refer to her example when I think of myself as an actress aging in my profession: Do as Shirley did. Do the work, and all will be well. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5829767/shirley-knight-obituary/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5829767/shirley-knight-obituary/"},"headline":"'Do as Shirley Did.' Marcia Cross on the Legacy of Actor Shirley Knight","datePublished":"2020-04-30T10:02:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T08:41:16.169Z","description":"Authentic actor","url":"https://time.com/5829767/shirley-knight-obituary/","keywords":["remembrance","Magazine"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf473ff81b6cdc47/698a0d7d16d884d00dc38160/shirley-knight-obituary-social.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Marcia Cross","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/marcia-cross/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf473ff81b6cdc47/698a0d7d16d884d00dc38160/shirley-knight-obituary-social.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"shirley-knight-obituary-social","caption":"Shirley Knight in publicity portrait for the film \"Sweet Bird Of Youth\" in 1962.","creditText":"Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/remembrance/","name":"remembrance"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5829767/shirley-knight-obituary/","name":"'Do as Shirley Did.' Marcia Cross on the Legacy of Actor Shirley Knight"}}]}] ```