Jennifer Runyon Corman, Chicago-born actress with roles in 'Ghostbusters,' 'Charles in Charge,' dead at 65

Jennifer Runyon Corman, an actress born in Chicago who was known for roles in “Ghostbusters” and "Charles in Charge," has died at 65.

Her representative Scott Ray said she died Friday “surrounded by her family” but didn’t give a cause of death. Her friend "Bewitched" star Erin Murphy posted on Instagram that her longtime friend died of cancer.

"Some people you just know you'll be friends with before you even meet,” Murphy wrote. “She was a special lady."

In the first season of the TV hit “Charles in Charge,” which premiered in 1984, Runyon Corman played Gwendolyn Pierce, the girlfriend of the title character played by Scott Baio. She briefly reprised her character at the end of Season 2.

Runyon Corman’s first film credit was in the 1980 thriller "To All a Goodnight."

Among her other acting credits, she had roles in Season 3 of "The Fall Guy," the 1984 comedy "Up the Creek," Season 7 of "Magnum, P.I.," the premiere episode of the original "Quantum Leap" and "Murder, She Wrote," according to her IMDB page. She also appeared in the 1988 made-for-TV movie "A Very Brady Christmas" as Cindy Brady, the role that Susan Olsen originated in “The Brady Bunch.”

In one of her biggest roles, in the original “Ghostbusters” movie, Runyon Corman played a student, acting opposite Bill Murray's Dr. Peter Venkman.

Years later, in an August 2023 interview with the Horror Heathen YouTube channel, she said: “When I went to go to the premiere, I was blown away by the movie, and I'm, like, 'Oh, my God. This is a big movie. I'm in a big movie.' It was huge for me. I was so excited but so nervous to meet [Murray]. He just puts you right at ease. It was fun. It was playful."

Runyon Corman, who described herself as "an extremely shy child," got her start in Hollywood after moving to California at 12 after the death of her radio DJ father, she said in the interview. Her family's neighbor was a casting director who suggested acting classes to help her "open" up.

The actress was a pharmacy employee unsure of her career path when a casting director saw her perform a scene in class and offered her an audition for a soap opera.

Though that gig didn't pan out, she eventually got cast in NBC's "Another World," which brought her to New York. She was one of several actresses who portrayed Sally Frame, a role she played from 1981 to 1983 that helped launch her TV career.

She is survived by her husband Todd Corman and their two grown children, son Wyatt and daughter Bayley.

She didn’t act for a decade after her son was born, telling The Lady in Red Blog in July 2016: “Once we had our son, I kind of knew that I wanted to take some time off just to be a mom. . . . left the business to raise my kids, and we left Hollywood, and we moved to Idaho and Oregon.”

Read more at USA Today.