Samantha Eggar dead: Oscar-nominated Cary Grant co-star dies after 'a long, fabulous life'

British Oscar-nominated actress Samantha Eggar died at the age of 86 on Wednesday, October 15. Her House of Cards star daughter Jenna Stern confirmed she passed away at her home in Sherman Oaks, California. Although no cause of death was given, she had struggled with illness for the past five years, but she "lived a long, fabulous life," her daughter said. Writing on Instagram, she paid tribute by posting a carousel of images of her mother throughout the years. She captioned it: "Beautiful, intelligent and tough enough to be fascinatingly vulnerable...Samantha Eggar (1939-2025) My Mama passed Wednesday evening. Peacefully and quietly surrounded by family. I was there next to her... holding her hand, telling her how much she was loved. It was beautiful. It was a privilege."

Samantha won her Oscar nomination for her role in the 1965 film The Collector, which saw her star opposite Terence Stamp, who died in August this year. In a 2014 interview for the website The Terror Trap, she recalled the shoot having been gruelling as director William Wyler ramped up the intensity during filming to make the action feel more real.

"Terence was at [the London drama school] Webber Douglas with me. So we knew each other then. But for the sake of the movie, we never spoke throughout the whole film. He really was that character, both off-camera and on. My biggest relationship on set was with William Wyler and [dialogue coach] Kathleen Freeman, a brilliant, brilliant woman who really got me through The Collector, because it was not ... an easy film to make."

"...If the tension wasn't there - if I didn't exude precisely what he wanted - well, Willie just poured cold water over me. You remember I was tied up by black leather? Well, use your imagination and go from there! What you see onscreen was really taking place on set," she revealed.

A year after her breakthrough role, she starred opposite screen legend Cary Grant in Walk, Don't Run, which was his final film before he retired from movies. She also demonstrated her singing and dancing skills on screen, appearing alongside Rex Harrison in 1967's Doctor Dolittle, a musical fantasy about a guy who can talk to the animals.

In the 1970s and 1980s, she became a horror movie icon thanks to roles in movies such as 1972's The Dead Are Alive! 1973's A Name for Evil, 1977's The Uncanny, and 1983's Curtains (1983). One of her most famous and popular roles in the genre came in an early David Cronenberg offering, The Brood, in 1979.

She continued to grace the big screen up until the turn of the century and also fostered an impressive TV career. Among her most memorable roles she appeared as Captain Picard's (Patrick Stewart) sister-in-law on Star Trek: The Next Generation, as the spy Charlotte Devane on All My Children and as the wife of the Speaker of the House (Donald Sutherland) on Commander in Chief, starring Geena Davis as the U.S. president.

Tributes flooded in as news of her death reached fans: "Very sad, I loved her on TV with Yul Brynner, in Anna and the King, and in Walk Don't Run with the wonderful Cary Grant," one wrote on Facebook. "A very mesmerising presence. RIP Samantha," another added.

"Oh damn. Excellent actress and a real beauty, too. She's radiant in a rather obscure late 70s film, The Light at The Edge of The World with Kirk Douglas and Yul Brynner," a third shared. "Such a beautiful and talented actress with the must radiant red hair. R.I.P." a fourth penned.

A fifth chimed in: "Oh my goodness! She really was a fine actress; excellent in both 'The Collector' and 'The Walking Stick'. Rest in Peace." Meanwhile, a sixth shared: "The Brood is my favourite among those bonkers early-era Cronenberg films, and she's one of the reasons I loved it so much."