Dreamgirls and Transformers Actress Esther Scott Dies at 66 After Heart Attack
Actress Esther Scott died after suffering a heart attack, PEOPLE confirms. She was 66.
Scott, who starred in Boyz n the Hood, Dreamgirls, Pursuit of Happyness and Transformers, had a heart attack at her Santa Monica home on Feb. 11 and remained in the hospital until she died on Friday surrounded by loved ones. TMZ was the first outlet to report on her death.
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Along with movie roles in Encino Man, Austin Powers in Goldmember and The Craft, Scott played next-door neighbor Delma Warner on four seasons of The CW’s Hart of Dixie and Gladys on the short-lived series The Geena Davis Show. She also appeared in The Help, Melrose Place and Sister, Sister.
“She loved the work she did,” a family representative tells PEOPLE. “She loved her fans. She was always humbled and honored when her fans acknowledged and recognized her. She’ll be missed.”
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The late actress got her start in Hollywood in the mid-1980s when she lent her voice to the Star Wars: Ewoks series and made one of her last onscreen appearances in 2016’s The Birth of a Nation, in which she played the grandmother of slave rebellion leader Nat Turner.
“I prayed to Nana Bridget that I presented her in a way that would honor who she was,” Scott said of her Birth of a Nation role. “Bridget encouraged his [Turner’s] spirituality, his faith.”
