Babylon 5, Lost Actress Mira Furlan Is Dead

Mira Furlan, an actress who starred in the 1990s sci-fi favorite Babylon 5 and the more recent TV mystery Lost, died Wednesday. Her family said the 65-year-old suffered complications from the West Nile virus, per the BBC. In a statement, Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski said the cast and crew had "known for some time now that Mira's health was fading." He added he'd learned that Furlan had been taken out of care and returned home, apparently to die. "As a family, we held our counsel, and began the long wait, which has now ended," he wrote. Furlan's family said "she died peacefully at her home in Los Angeles, surrounded by her family." She's survived by her husband, director Goran Gajic, and one son, per Variety.

Born in the former Yugoslavia, Furlan joined the Croatian National Theatre before moving to the US in 1991. Two years later, she debuted as Minbari ambassador Delenn in the Babylon 5 space opera. She remained with the cast for the show's five seasons before joining ABC's Lost in 2004. She played Danielle Rousseau, a scientist shipwrecked on a remote island in the South Pacific before the arrival of plane crash survivors. Those were her best-known roles. However, Furlan appeared in dozens of TV shows and movies, including the Oscar-nominated When Father Was Away on Business, as well as the sci-fi web series Space Command, which debuted last year. Furlan also released a 1998 album, Songs From Movies That Have Never Been Made. (Read more obituaries.)