Benson star Inga Swenson dies aged 90

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Inga Swenson has died at the age of 90.

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The actress was best known for starring as Gretchen Kraus in the ABC comedy series ‘Benson’ alongside Robert Guillaume and James Noble in the 1980s but passed away on Sunday, as a “result of natural causes”, her son Mark has announced.

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On Friday, he told TMZ that Inga had been in the company of her husband Lowell Harris when she passed away at a care home and that her death “did not come as a shock to the family” because her health had been in decline for the past six months.

The outlet went on to report that Inga “wanted to be cremated” and hoped to have her ashes buried with her late son James, who died in 1987.

During her time on ‘Benson’, Inga earned three Emmy nominations for playing the German cook on the series that was a spin-off of fellow sitcom ‘Soap’, in which she had also starred on as Ingrid Svenson.

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Away from the small screen, Inga starred on Broadway and earned Tony nominations for her roles as Lizzie Curry in ‘110 in the Shade’ and Irene Adler in ‘Baker Street’ and was a trained lyrical soprano.

At the height of her fame with ‘Benson’, Inga explained that she had never thought about starring in a sitcom because she believed she “lacked all the qualities” needed and had even been told that she wasn’t funny.

She said: I never had any interest in sitcoms because I lacked all the qualities I walk into a casting office and sit down with my knees together. People take one look and say, ‘You’re not funny. You don’t even have a funny face!”