Actress Lynne Marie Stewart, known for Pee-wee’s Playhouse and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, died on Friday, February 21, 2025. Her manager announced that she died peacefully following a short illness. She was 78 years old.

Stewart was best known for playing Miss Yvonne, the glamorous friend of Pee-wee Herman in Pee-wee’s Playhouse and other projects in the franchise. Later, she was a recurring guest star on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia as Charlie’s neurotic mother.

She was born on December 14, 1946, in Los Angeles, and studied theater arts at LA City College. Stewart was one of the first members of the Groundlings comedy improv troupe, alongside Pee-wee performer Paul Reubens and Elvira actress Cassandra Peterson.

Stewart was part of the Pee-wee performances when Reubens’ created the character at the Groundlings. As Miss Yvonne, “the most beautiful woman in Puppetland,” she also appeared in Christmas at Pee-wee’s Playhouse special, three Pee-wee movies, and the stage production, The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway, among others.

Her first onscreen credit was in 1971’s Drive, He Said, and then she was in American Graffiti. Stewart played multiple one-off characters on Laverne & Shirley, and then she voiced Shirley in Laverne & Shirley in the Army and other animated spinoff series. She was in Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Summer School, The Running Man, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, and guest starred in Night Court, Empty Nest, and In the Heat of the Night.

In the 1990s and 2000s, Stewart was in Clear and Present Danger, she starred in the show Night Stand, she guest starred in Spin City, According to Jim, and Grey’s Anatomy. Her later roles included starring in Bridesmaids, appearing in 2 Broke Girls, voicing Aunt Harriet in Batman vs. Two-Face, and her final role was on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.