The family of actress Mary Alice Smith announced her passing on the night of Wednesday, July 27, in New York City. Known professionally as Mary Alice, the Tony and Emmy Award-winning talent had a career that spanned fifty years, first acting in theater plays in the 1960s and transitioning into film and television in the decades that followed.

Mary Alice officially retired from acting in 2005, but left a legacy of memorable roles in her wake, from starring as Effie Williams in the musical Sparkle in the ’70s and playing the beloved dorm director Lettie on "A Different World" in the ’80s, all the way up to taking on the character of the Oracle in "The Matrix Revolutions" in the early 2000s.