Fran Drescher’s dad, Morty Drescher, died at age 94 on March 20.
Fran, 66, reacted to the loss in a statement shared with Us Weekly via her rep one week later.
“My beloved father Morty passed away gently in his sleep in the early hours of Mar 20th surrounded by my mother and I. Although he was 94.5, it still feels untenable how permanent the loss of this great man is,” the Nanny star began.
Fran went on to speak at length about her father’s admirable qualities.
“His values were always in the right place. He honored and respected everyone equally. He understood the important things in this life, love of family, simple pleasures and living in gratitude. He passed these values onto his children and lived an exemplary life,” she wrote. “Always, the life of the party, he was funny and smart. Known within our circles of family and friends to always recite Casey At The Bat, one of his favorite poems.”
The actress also mentioned some of her father’s interests, which included swimming and “sports of all kinds,” and praised him for being a good friend, husband and father.
“He was a good friend to many people both at work and within his community. He was an amazing father who taught my sister [Nadine Drescher] and I to swim, ride a bicycle and drive a car. He was the best husband to my mom [Sylvia Drescher] and remained madly in love with her until his last breath,” she wrote.
In the wake of her father’s death, Fran skipped the New York Women in Film & Television’s 44th annual Muse Awards for Vision and Achievement on Wednesday, March 27, where she was slated to accept an award. One of her SAG-AFTRA colleagues accepted the honor on Fran’s behalf, with the star sending a message honoring Morty and apologizing for her absence.
Fran, who has been President of SAG-AFTRA since 2021, credits her father with the skills she used while presiding over negotiations during the union’s historic months-long strike last year.
“[My dad was] a systems analyst, I inherited his analytical mind which I referenced throughout my leadership as sag-aftra president, especially during the strike,” she said in her statement. “I am so happy he got to see me not only achieve success as an actor but even more important as a labor leader because doing volunteer work on behalf of the greater good was the ethics by which he raised me.”
Fran, who noted that Morty was “very proud of both of his daughters’ accomplishments”, concluded the statement: “If there is a heaven, he’s there now because he lived purely, honestly and lovingly.”
The comedian previously spoke about her father’s battle with Parkinson’s Disease during a December 2023 essay for The Daily Beast.
“[He] has gone from once being a white-collar systems analyst and very athletic to, at 94, now being an invalid, barely able to transfer from bed to wheelchair or take a brief supervised walk with his walker,” she wrote.
Fran then praised her mom, Sylvia, 89, for taking such good care of Morty.
“Without question, the only reason he is still alive and has quality of life is because of my mother’s commitment to preserving that quality of life,” she penned. “When he remembers something that she can’t, she praises him profusely on how smart he is. That’s what she was most attracted to about him.”
Fran has also been open about how cannabis helped her father cope with the chronic degenerative disorder.
“He went from having that expressionless look that Parkinson’s patients often get where it’s kind of a dull life, to a positive reaction within seconds upon using cannabis,” she said during a 2018 interview with Forbes. “His whole face became animated, his voice became strong, his eyes opened up, and my dad was back to being himself.”
Morty made several appearances on The Nanny over the years, portraying both Fran’s fictional father, Morty Fine, and Fran’s uncle Stanley Fine. He also appeared on two episodes of the WB sitcom Living With Fran in 2005.
More recently, Morty participated in the 2020 REELZ television special Fran Drescher: In My Own Words alongside Sylvia.
“My mom’s in her eighties, my dad just turned 90. I asked for all the footage because [they were interviewed] for hours. To have that for posterity, that alone was worth doing it,” Fran told TV Insider in 2020 of her parents’ participation in the film.
