Posted in: ABC, SYFY, TV | Tagged: babylon 5, bleeding cool, cable, Danielle Rousseau, delenn, lost, Mira Furlan, sci-fi, streaming, television, tv

Lost, Babylon 5 Star Mira Furlan Passes Away, Age 65

The pop culture landscape is mourning the loss of Mira Furlan, who passed away on Wednesday at the age of 65. The actress was best known to geek culture for her role as Delenn on J. Michael Straczynski's Babylon 5 as well as her role as Danielle Rousseau on Jeffrey Lieber, J. J. Abrams, and Damon Lindelof's Lost. The news of Furlan's passing was first made public through the actress's Twitter account on Thursday, with Straczynski posting a tribute to Furlan later in the evening. The actress is survived by her husband Goran Gajić and their son, Marko Lav Gajić.

Emigrating to the U.S. in 1991 after an early career on stage as well as part of the Croatian National Theatre, Furlan would join the cast of Straczynski's space opera as the popular Minbari ambassador in 1993 and be a part of the still-popular sci-fi series for its full five-season run. Further cementing her place in geek culture, Furlan would join the cast of ABC's Lost as the mysterious Rousseau, a scientist whose shipwreck on the island pre-dated the crash of Oceanic Flight 815 by 16 years- and who would go on to appear over the next several seasons. Most recently, Furlan joined the cast of the sci-fi series Space Command in the role of Vonn Odara/Evelyn 'Vonn' Odara.

While the cause of Furlan's death wasn't revealed at the time the news was released, Straczynski and others associated with Babylon 5 had "known for some time now that Mira's health was fading" and that they "kept hoping that she would improve. In his post below, the Babylon 5 creator continued, "Mira was a good and kind woman, a stunningly talented performer, and a friend to everyone in the cast and crew of 'Babylon 5,' and we are all devastated by the news. The cast members with whom she was especially close since the show's end will need room to process this moment, so please be gentle if they are unresponsive for a time. We have been down this road too often, and it only gets harder."

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