Louisa Moritz, an actress who appeared in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and later accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault, died last week in Los Angeles. She was 72.
"Her heart just gave out. She died of natural causes. She wasn't well this last year and had balance problems," her spokesman Edward Lozzi told the New York Daily News.
Moritz, who also appeared in the 1978 Cheech and Chong hit "Up in Smoke" and 1970s show "Love American Style," stepped forward in 2014 to say Cosby forced his penis in her mouth in a dressing room before a 1971 appearance on Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show."
She said the assault took place at NBC studios in New York.
She joined a defamation lawsuit against Cosby that is still pending in federal court in Massachusetts with seven plaintiffs.
Lozzi said her estate will continue to support the legal proceeding. "She was elated about the conviction and also about her defamation lawsuit in Massachusetts," he said.
He said Moritz, born Louisa Castro, was a trained lawyer and accountant in her home country of Cuba before she came to New York in the late 1950s, as Fidel Castro, a distant and estranged relative, rose to power.
"She escaped Cuba," he said. "When she arrived, she couldn't speak a word of English. She became a proud American and had a 50-year career in showbiz."
Cammarata said Moritz will remain a plaintiff in the case, despite her death.
"We look forward to a resolution of the case that will establish that Louisa was a truth teller, so that her legacy will live forever untarnished," he said.
He said she changed her last name from Castro to Moritz after seeing the St. Moritz Hotel in Manhattan.
"Louisa Moritz was a brave woman who stood up against a powerful Hollywood icon, Bill Cosby, in an effort to restore her good name and reputation, after he publicly branded her a liar when she made public her allegations of sexual abuse and assault by Mr. Cosby," her lawyer on the defamation case, Joseph Cammarata, said in a statement to the Daily News.
