Valerie Perrine died Monday, March 23, 2026, at her home in Beverly Hills. She was 82. Close friend and filmmaker Stacey Souther said the cause was complications of Parkinson’s disease, diagnosed in 2015 after years of symptoms. She had nearly seventy film and television credits and was best known as Honey Harlow in *Lenny* and Eve Teschmacher in the first two *Superman* films. Souther, who directed the 2019 documentary *Valerie*, said she remained herself until the end.
Born Valerie Ritchie Perrine in Galveston, Texas, on September 3, 1943, she grew up in a military family and lived abroad, including Japan and Paris, before leaving college for Las Vegas. She became a lead dancer in the Lido de Paris revue at the Stardust Hotel, working long nights in heavy costumes. That discipline and presence carried her to a screen test. After *Slaughterhouse-Five* in 1972, *Lenny* in 1974 made her a dramatic lead opposite Dustin Hoffman. The role brought an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, a BAFTA, and Best Actress at Cannes. She later played Lex Luthor’s secretary opposite Gene Hackman and Christopher Reeve, a part that made her famous to a wider audience and also locked her, for a time, into the “sex symbol” label she found too small.
Parkinson’s took the mobility she had used as a dancer and actress. The documentary followed the daily cost of that illness without turning her into a symbol. She met the diagnosis with the same dry line she used on many hard facts: when doctors could not tidy the explanation, she called it karma. She is survived by her brother, Kenneth, who has also lived with Parkinson’s. After years of medical bills, friends raised money so she could be buried at Forest Lawn in the Hollywood Hills, which had been her wish.
She never became only one thing. Showgirl, nominee, comic foil, working actress who kept taking parts after the first rush of fame. *Lenny* still shows what she could do when a role asked for more than a look. *Superman* still shows the charm that made people remember a supporting name. The work is what remains on the screen. The rest is a long career lived on her own terms, then a long illness faced without turning away from the camera.
