Louisa Moritz Death | Biography
Louisa Moritz (25 September 1946 – 30 January 2019, died in Los Angeles, California, United States ) was a Cuban-American actress, real estate holder, classical guitar player, and producer. After arriving in New York from Cuba, she became an actress in films, television shows, and television ads. She is best known for her roles in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest with Jack Nicholson and the television show Love, American Style
Louisa Moritz Age
She was born on 25 September 1946, in Havana, Cuba. She was 72 years old at age death as of 2019.
Louisa Moritz IMDb | Family Members
Lovely, buxom and vivacious blonde bombshell Louisa Moritz was born as Louisa Castro in Havana, Cuba. Many members of Louisa’s family which include her father Luis, sister Aurora, and her older brother Rafael all have worked in the law profession. Moritz left Cuba and moved to New York City during the upheaval of the 1950s. Louisa was inspired to change her last name from Castro to Moritz after seeing the St. Moritz Hotel in New York City. Moritz started her acting career in TV commercials in the late ’60s: She made her debut in a TV commercial for Ultra-Ban spray deodorant and won both a Clio Award and an Andy Award for her work as a student driver in a TV commercial for American Motors. Louisa made her film debut in the lead role of young prostitute Carmela in The Man from O.R.G.Y. (1970). Perhaps best known to general audiences as the hooker Rose in the Oscar-winning classic One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), her most memorable roles include Sylvester Stallone’s airhead navigator Myra in the cult science fiction black comedy Death Race 2000 (1975), cheery prostitute Flora in the delightful Sixpack Annie (1975), Officer Gloria Whitey in Up in Smoke (1978), hilarious as the aggressively lascivious Carmela in the uproariously raunchy teen comedy hoot The Last American Virgin (1982), and ditsy kleptomaniac Bubbles in the terrifically trashy babes-behind-bars treat Chained Heat (1983). Among the television programs Moritz has appeared on are The Leslie Uggams Show (1969), The Joe Namath Show (1969), Love, American Style (1969), Ironside (1967), Happy Days (1974), M*A*S*H (1972), Chico and the Man (1974), The Rockford Files (1974), The Incredible Hulk (1978) and The Associates (1979). Outside of acting, Louisa has sold real estate, sung a song she specifically wrote about host Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show,” and bought a hotel in Beverly Hills which she renamed the Beverly Hills St. Moritz. Although often cast as the generic dumb blonde in many films and TV shows (a part which she has always played with great spirit and infectiously sweet good humor), Moritz in real life is the total radical opposite of this particular persona: She not only made the Deans List while studying for her law degree at the University of West Los Angeles but also won the American Jurisprudence Bancroft Whitney Prize for Contracts as well. Louisa Moritz went on to work as an attorney in Southern California but has since been barred from practicing law because she failed to report certain quarterly reports.
Louisa Moritz Photos
Louisa-Moritz-2-shot
Louisa Moritz Up Net Worth
Louisa Moritz Today
Louisa Moritz, actress, lawyer and one of Bill Cosby’s accusers, dies at 72
Cuban-born Louisa Moritz, the actress-turned-lawyer who was one of the first of five dozen women who accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault, died Jan. 4 at a hospice in Los Angeles at age 72, her publicist and lawyer said Wednesday.
Edward Lozzi, Moritz’s longtime spokesman, and a friend told USA TODAY the cause of death was heart failure.
He said she had been ill for about a year and was recently injured when she fell during a trip to Washington to meet with her lawyer, Joseph Cammarata. He is handling the defamation suit she and six other women filed against Cosby in federal court in Massachusetts in 2014.
“She aged a lot in the four years since the Cosby thing. I’ve never seen such a decline,” said Lozzi, who described Moritz as a longtime “holistic health fanatic.” He said she also “was going on auditions right up to the end, until about two years ago.”
Cammarata said Moritz was a “brave woman who stood up against a powerful Hollywood icon.” Moritz was one of 35 Cosby accusers who was photographed for a dramatic cover of New York magazine in 2015.
He said she joined the defamation suit “in an effort to restore her good name and reputation, after (Cosby) publicly branded her a liar when she made public her allegations of sexual abuse and assault,” Cammarata said in a statement to USA TODAY.
“Despite her death, her claim against Mr. Cosby will continue. … We look forward to a resolution of the case that will establish that Louisa was a truth-teller so that her legacy will live forever untarnished.”
Before her death, “Louisa was elated that the suit was going to go forward,” Lozzi said.
Moritz came forward in November 2014, soon after multiple accusations of sexual misconduct began emerging against Cosby. She said he forced her into oral sex in the dressing room of Johnny Carson’s “The Tonight Show” in 1971.
Louisa Moritz in “Love, American Style,” Oct. 15, 1971.
Louisa Moritz in “Love, American Style,” Oct. 15, 1971. (Photo: ABC Photo Archives/via Getty Images)
After Cosby and his lawyers denied the claims of multiple women, including Moritz, Cammarata, and his clients argued that Cosby in effect had labeled them liars by denying their allegations.
The defamation lawsuit, one of several against Cosby, is pending. Cosby was convicted of three counts of sexual assault in Pennsylvania last year, was sentenced to three-to-10 years in prison, and is in a state correctional facility while he appeals his conviction and sentence.
Moritz was best known for her role as Rose the hooker in the Oscar-winning “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” in 1975, but she had a long list of credits dating back to the 1960s, about 10 years after she arrived in America from Havana as Louisa Castro.
After spotting the St. Moritz Hotel in New York City, the “blond bombshell,” as she was frequently described, decided to dump her last name, as it was too much of a reminder of her distant relative, Fidel Castro, the revolutionary Cuban leader she had fled the island to escape.
She made her acting debut in TV commercials and her film debut in the lead role of the young prostitute Carmela in “The Man from O.R.G.Y.” in 1970. After that she scored a steady stream of film and TV roles, including appearing with Sylvester Stallone as Myra in “Death Race 2000,” and as Officer Gloria Whitey in Cheech & Chong’s “Up in Smoke.”
She also appeared on major TV comedies and dramas, such as “Happy Days” and “M*A*S*H.,” and was a regular on “Love, America Style,”
Although she often played a ditzy, good-humored gal in her various roles, she was anything but dumb: An accountant in Cuba, she later got a law degree in Los Angeles, and was top of her class in law school, Lozzi said. Even while continuing to act, she worked as an attorney in southern California until she was barred from practicing law because she failed to file quarterly reports on time.
She played classical guitar and wrote music, she sold and invested in real estate, and she bought a hotel in Beverly Hills that she renamed the Beverly Hills St. Moritz.
“She was so full of life, talent, and she was a genius with a sixth sense for making money,” Lozzi said. “Her parties … in the 1980s were wild and popular with actors, producers, models, makeup artists, set directors, stuntmen.
“Her hundreds of TV and film roles will keep her memory alive with her fans forever. Her support of other women who accused Bill Cosby of rape will keep her with us for years to come,” Lozzi said.