Bunny Levine, Actress In ‘Jury Duty,’ ‘Thelma’ And 3 Adam Sandler Movies, Dies At 97
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 14: Actress Bunny Levine attends the Los Angeles Premiere of “Thelma” at The Egyptian Theatre Hollywood on June 14, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Amanda Edwards/Getty Images)
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Bunny Levine, a prolific character actress who appeared in three Adam Sandler movies and had guest roles in Jury Duty, Gilmore Girls, Chappelle’s Show and Shameless, has died.
Levine’s representative, Mike Eisenstadt, told NBC Los Angeles that the actress died Tuesday at her home in Tarzana, Calif. She was 97. According to NBC LA, the Los Angeles Police Department responded to a report about an unresponsive person at Levine’s residence and believes that the actress died from natural causes.
According to NBC LA, Levine was a school librarian before she decided to get into acting. Born Bernice Levine on Dec. 22, 1928, in East Orange, N.J., Levine’s first screen role was in 1988, when she was hired to play a supporting role for the B-horror movie Slime City.
After that, Levine appeared in more than 100 screen projects, including roles in the Sandler movies You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah and Sandy Wexler (in an uncredited role).
More recently, Levine starred opposite June Squibb and Richard Roundtree in the 2024 action comedy Thelma. In the 2023 Freevee/Prime Video reality/scripted comedy Jury Dury, Levine played a prospective juror in two episodes.
Bunny Levine Appeared In Dozens Of Guest Roles On TV
Throughout her nearly four-decades-long career, Bunny Levine appeared in dozens of guest roles on television. Among them were Law & Order, As the World Turns, Chappelle’s Show, Gilmore Girls, Ugly Betty, Private Practice, Gary Unmarried, Community, Criminal Minds, Men of a Certain Age, 2 Broke Girls, Happy Endings and Raising Hope.
Additionally, Levine played guest roles in Have You Met Miss Jones?, Southland, The Middle, New Girl, Mulaney, Bad Judge, Workaholics, The Mindy Project, Fuller House, Shameless, Mayans, M.C., Dave, The Upshaws and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
Levine also appeared in such films as Cadillac Man, A Thousand Words, La La Land, Sacramento and The Invisible Raptor. The actress’ last film role was in the 2026 indie David Dastmalchian horror thriller The Cure.
According to her self-authored IMDb profile, Levine “put her acting aspirations on the back burner for 25 years, working primarily as a school librarian, to help her underpaid college professor husband raise their three children.”
Bunny Levine’s husband, Bernard Levine, died in 2003.
