Samantha Eggar, Oscar-nominated star of The Collector, dies at 86

Samantha Eggar, the British actress best known for her Oscar-nominated turn in the 1965 thriller The Collector and later roles in Doctor Dolittle and David Cronenberg’s The Brood, died Wednesday at her home in Sherman Oaks, California. She was 86. Her daughter, actress Jenna Stern, announced the death on Instagram, saying her mother passed “peacefully and quietly surrounded by family” and that she was at her side holding her hand.

Eggar’s family said she had been living with a long illness; some reports described the illness as lasting about five years. No specific cause of death was released. Born March 5, 1939, in Hampstead, London, Eggar launched her career on stage with several Shakespearean companies before moving into film and television in the early 1960s.

Her breakthrough came with William Wyler’s psychological thriller The Collector, in which she played a kidnapped art student and received an Academy Award nomination, a Golden Globe and the Cannes Film Festival’s best actress prize. The film’s success led to a string of prominent roles, including Cary Grant’s co-star in his final film Walk Don’t Run (1966) and Emma Fairfax opposite Rex Harrison in the 1967 musical...