Sad news today, as Romy Walthall, best known for her roles in TV series Murder One and the movies Face/Off and The House of Usher, has died at the age of 57. The news was confirmed by her son, the actor and director Morgan Krantz, who shared Variety's post with the comment, "Love you, mom". The actress passed away on the 19th of May following a cardiac arrest. A memorial service was held in Malibu in her honor last week.

Walthall, who often worked under the name Romy Windsor, was born in Pasadena, Texas, on September 16th, 1963, and was first introduced to the industry when she won the Mother/Daughter USA pageant in 1980. The same year, she was picked up by Ford Models and started working in Europe. She remained in Europe for a number of years until returning back to the US to try her hand at acting, gaining a few small roles before landing a part in Thief of Hearts in 1984, a Jerry Bruckheimer movie which gave her a small foothold to gain other future roles.

She went on to appear in A Bunny's Tale, about the working life of Playboy Bunnies, horror movies The House of Usher and The Howling IV: The Original Nightmare and the comed Surf Ninjas. She appeared in John Woo's Face/Off in 1997 as the secretary of Sean Archer, who was played by John Travolta.

In her TV career, she had a much more prolific range of roles. Her biggest roles were in the sitcom Man of The People with James Garner, which was also her first small screen role, Hotel Malibu, Civil Wars and Murder One. She also made single appearances in Quantum Leap, The X Files, Camp Nowhere, The Nightmare Room and L.A.Law to mention a few. Her last appearance on TV was in 2005's Life on a Stick. She made one further movie appearance in 2011 in 0s &1s, in which she played a supporting role alongside son Morgan in the lead, before retiring from acting to become an acting teacher.

The actress's children posted tributes to their mother on Instagram. Son, Theodore Dudley, posted, "The love and wisdom you gave me will never expire. You will always be an inspiration to me. You taught me to never give up. You taught me to not take no for an answer. You taught me to be true to myself. You always rooted for me, because you knew I can do anything. You instilled in me my warrior spirit. Thank you for bringing me onto earth. Love you. Rest in peace. I'll see you in the stars."

Her daughter Isabella Israel said, ""I've resigned myself to the fact that there will never be any appropriate combination of earthly words to accurately describe my mother. You just had to be there to get it. She was everything at once. She was my first love. She was the most beautiful woman I've ever seen and she was wicked and fun and light and dark and she possessed the kind of magic that you truly just don't see. I will always always always love you ferociously."