‘Poltergeist’ Zelda Rubinstein Passes On

Zelda Rubinstein, best known for her role as Tangina in the Poltergeist Films has passed away at the enduring age of 76.

The 4 foot, 3 inch tall actress made her fame when she appeared in the highly popular films. She played the Psychic Tangina who helped the family get their daughter back. she appeared in both Poltergeist and its sequel Poltergeist II.

Her representative, Eric Stevens has told the LA Times that she passed away on Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at an LA Hospital. She was being treated for a recent Heart Attack. I for one will miss the little woman who had a wonderful outgoing nature to her. Let’s hope she will live on and get a dedication tribute in the reboot of Poltergeist coming soon. She deserves that.

ASSOCIATED PRESS: Zelda Rubinstein, the 4-foot-3-inch character actor best known as Tangina, the psychic who tries to calm a family inhabiting a haunted house in the 1982 horror film “Poltergeist,” has died. She was 76.

Her agent, Eric Stevens, tells the Los Angeles Times that Rubinstein died Wednesday at a Los Angeles hospital. Stevens says she recently suffered a heart attack.

Rubinstein made her film debut in the 1981 comedy “Under the Rainbow” and went on to roles in “Sixteen Candles,” “Southland Tales” and the TV show “Picket Fences.” She returned for both “Poltergeist” sequels.

The Pittsburgh native also appeared as the mother figure in a high-profile mid-1980s AIDS public awareness campaign and was an outspoken activist for the rights of little people.

Zelda Rubinstein: 1933 – 2010