Doris May Roberts (née Green; November 4, 1925 – April 17, 2016[1]) was an American actress whose career spanned seven decades of television and film.

Roberts studied acting at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City and started in films in 1961.

She had several prominent film roles, including playing opposite Shirley Stoler in The Honeymoon Killers (1970), Elliott Gould in Little Murders (1971), Steven Keats in Hester Street (1975), Billy Crystal in Rabbit Test (1978), Robert Carradine in Number One with a Bullet (1987), Cady McClain in Simple Justice (1989), among many others.

She was raised by her mother, Ann (née Meltzer),[citation needed] and her maternal grandparents in The Bronx, New York, after her father, Larry Green, deserted the family.

Chester and Roberts' mother operated the Z. L. Rosenfield Agency, a stenographic service catering to playwrights and actors.

She appeared in such 1960s/1970s films as A Lovely Way to Die, No Way to Treat a Lady, The Honeymoon Killers, Such Good Friends, Little Murders, A New Leaf, The Heartbreak Kid, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Hester Street, and Rabbit Test.

In an interview with the Archive of American Television, Rue McClanahan confirmed that in 1972 she was approached by Norman Lear during the taping of an All in the Family episode to be a late replacement for Roberts, who was originally intended for the role of Vivian on Maude.

Roberts also appeared on Alice, playing the mother of the title character (played by her former Broadway co-star Linda Lavin); on Barney Miller in two different roles, as the wife of a man who secretly visits a sex surrogate, and (in three episodes) as the harried wife of a middle-aged man who occasionally makes erratic decisions to give his life meaning.

Roberts played Theresa Falco on Angie, and later appeared as Mildred Krebs on NBC's Remington Steele from 1983-1987.

The two women's characters, of course, clash, with Heaton's Frankie Heck always managing to get pushed out of sorts into disastrous action usually resulting in some kind of public chastisement by Roberts' Rinsky, an expert at passive-aggressive manipulation.

She appeared in numerous Broadway shows including William Saroyan's The Time of Your Life, William Marchant's The Desk Set (with Shirley Booth), Neil Simon's The Last of the Red Hot Lovers (with James Coco and Linda Lavin) and Terrence McNally's Bad Habits.

Just a month after her death she was memorialized in New York City, where a public tribute was held at the Ambassador Theatre, where she appeared in 1972 in The Secret Affairs of Mildred Wild with Maureen Stapleton.

Among the stars attending the service were Ray Romano and Patricia Heaton (her co-stars from Everybody Loves Raymond) and actor David Hyde Pierce.

Whether working professionally or with her many charities, or just nurturing and mentoring a green young comic trying to make it as an actor, she did everything with such a grand love for life and people and I will miss her dearly.

"[22] Just a month after her death, he said: Here's how good she was: She played the most intrusive, overbearing, nosy woman—always starting fights and whatnot and meddling in our business—and yet when I asked the fans who their favorite character was, all the time it was her.

[23] She was interred at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park and Mortuary in Los Angeles, California.