Markie Post, the veteran actress who recurred as Barbara “Bunny” Fletcher on Chicago PD, has passed away after a battle with cancer according to multiple media reports.
Post appeared in almost 20 episodes of Chicago PD as Bunny, the troublemaking woman who was Erin Lindsay’s (Sophia Bush) mother and constantly causing problems for Hank Voight (Jason Beghe). Her last appearance was in the season 4 episode “Fork in the Road,” where Bunny was caught up in a murder case and Lindsay ultimately left the Intelligence Unit.
For longtime TV watchers, though, Post is best-known for her roles in lighter-hearted series. She broke out as Terri Michaels in The Fall Guy opposite Lee Majors after joining that show in 1982, and was a household name when she portrayed public defender Christine Sullivan for over 150 episodes of the NBC sitcom Night Court between 1984 and 1992.
Other credits include co-starring with John Ritter in the CBS comedy Hearts Afire for three seasons (1992 to 1995), guest appearances on Scrubs, 30 Rock and Santa Clarita Diet, and voicing the role of June Darby in the animated Transformers series Transformers Prime (2010 to 2013).
Though her character understandably hasn’t been seen in the One Chicago universe since Sophia Bush’s exit from the franchise, Post definitely left her own impression in the fandom. Of all the dysfunctional parents in the Chicago series, her Bunny was the most entertaining. She could also be surprisingly sympathetic; even with all the problems she dragged Lindsay and Voight into, there was always a sense that she was genuinely trying to turn things around. She was just never very good at it.
That comes down to Post’s performance. So many TV series have those flawed parents that exist to stir up issues for the protagonist, or to be an explanation for why they’ve turned out the way they did. Viewers have seen all that before. But she was always so charming, and so genuine, that it reflected in Bunny. We were frustrated by the character, yet we also enjoyed seeing her on our screens because of who was playing her. Markie Post will be missed by everyone who loves TV, and certainly many One Chicago fans.
Below is one of Post’s best-known Chicago PD scenes, in which Bunny not-so-subtly argues that Voight might be Lindsay’s biological father. Hopefully the series will include some sort of tribute to her when it returns this fall.
Chicago PD airs Wednesdays at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. The series returns on Wednesday, September 22.
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