Melissa Yandell Smith has died at the safe of 64.
The veteran actress passed away at her San Francisco home on September 7 from colon cancer.
Her obituary in The New York Times read: "She passed away quietly September 7, 2021 in her home in San Francisco surrounded by her husband, son, brother and friends."
The article also explained that in December 2020 the star was forced to step away from "the job she had loved for so long" due to her decline health.
Melissa - who played Frances McDormand’s character Fern’s sister Dolly in Nomadland - had spent 25 years working at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre as conservatory director, they said when announcing her death.
"It is with great sorrow that we share that Melissa Smith, longtime Director of the Conservatory, passed away on September 7, 2021,' the statement read.
"Melissa's impact on A.C.T. and on the American theater is immense.
"So many have been touched by her talent, generosity, intellect, grace, and wonderful sense of humor. She will be greatly missed."
Melissa has an impressive career and trained at the Louisville Collegiate School and the Kentucky Country Day Schoo.
She then went to Yale and graduated with a BA in English and Theater before joining the Acting Program at the Yale School of Drama.
In her first week at Yale School of Drama, she would meet Warren David Keith, who would later become her husband.
In the 80s the star moved to New York to work in theatre but also began her long career in teaching, first at The Honolulu Youth Theater in Hawaii and in Purchase, New York at the SUNY, Purchase Youth Theater.
After stints teaching acting at Princeton and the Caymichael Patten Studio in New York, she joined ACT as conservatory director in 1995, and for many years oversaw the MFA program, which remains one of the leading graduate acting programs in the U.S.
Melissa is survived by her husband, the actor Warren David Keith, and son, Owen.
