Joyce Randolph, ‘The Honeymooners’ Star, Dies at 99

Joyce Randolph, known for her role as Trixie Norton on the classic TV show “The Honeymooners,” passed away in New York City at the age of 99. She was the last surviving member of the show’s cast. Joyce was in hospice care and died of natural causes, as reported by her son, Randolph Richard Charles.

In “The Honeymooners,” Joyce’s character, Norton, was married to Art Carney‘s Ed Norton. They played the neighbors of Ralph and Alice Kramden, portrayed by Jackie Gleason and Audrey Meadows.

Similarly, the gorgeous actress was born as Joyce Sirola in Detroit to a Finnish-American family, she started her entertainment career by joining a touring production of “Stage Door” while working at a department store.

Later, the Hollywood star moved to New York, where she performed in theater and on television, including shows like “Buck Rogers.”

Moreover, Jackie Gleason who is part of The Jackie Gleason Show whose guest was spotted her in a commercial and picked her for “The Honeymooners” in 1951. The show started as a sketch on “Cavalcade of Stars” and “The Jackie Gleason Show,” appearing Wayne Newton, and later became its sitcom in 1955 and 1956 on CBS.

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Even though only 39 episodes were made, the show stayed popular and influenced many sitcoms by showing working-class families disagreeing. Those episodes became a regular part of TV shows aired all over the country and even beyond.

In a talk with The New York Times in January 2007, Joyce mentioned that she didn’t receive any extra pay for those 39 episodes. She only started getting money when “lost” episodes were found and included in variety shows.

After spending five years as part of Gleason’s on-air team, the talented lady pretty much stopped working, choosing to focus entirely on being married and being a mom.

“I didn’t miss a thing by not working all the time,” she said. “I didn’t want a nanny raising (my) wonderful son.”

Even after many years of leaving the show, Joyce still had a lot of fans and received many letters every week. In her 80s, she would often visit the downstairs bar at Sardi’s, where she enjoyed her favorite drink, the White Cadillac – Dewar’s and milk.

People recognized her from a picture of the four characters from the sitcom over the bar and would chat with her.

After “The Honeymooners,” the household name found it hard to get other acting jobs because people mostly associated her with her role as Trixie. She made a guest appearance on the sitcom “Hi Honey I’m Home” in 1991, which had many former TV stars, and was in one episode of the earlier TV drama “The Doctors and the Nurses.”

Even though the late artist was sometimes called “the Garbo of Detroit” in the news, she never really understood why.

“Why Garbo? Well, she was Scandinavian — and so was I,” she once told the New York Times.

In addition, Joyce realized how much the show meant to viewers in the early 1980s. She shared a story from when her son was in college at Yale.

He came home and told her, “Did you know that guys and girls come up to me and ask, ‘Is your mom really Trixie?'” She mentioned he hadn’t paid much attention to it before then.

Sadly, the veteran actress Randolph is survived by her son, Randy, from her marriage to Richard Lincoln Charles, who passed away in 1997.

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