Beloved Actress, Motown Singer Dead at 78

Conny Van Dyke, a Motown Records star who acted on television during the ‘60s and ‘70s and again in the ‘00s, has passed away at age 78.

Van Dyke’s son, Bronson Page, told Variety that the singer-songwriter died of complications of vascular dementia on Saturday at home in Los Angeles. She also battled colon cancer during her lifetime and suffered a stroke that partially paralyzed her, the magazine reports.

Born in 1945, Van Dyke got a start in the music industry writing songs for Wheelsville Records in her native Detroit. She signed with Motown Records in 1961, according to Variety, and in 1963, she released single versions of “Oh, Freddy,” written by Smokey Robinson, and “It Hurt Me Too,” written by Marvin Gaye.

“I had Marvin Gaye playing the piano for me, Stevie Wonder playing the bongos. He really was 12 years old,” Van Dyke said in an interview with comedian Skip E. Lowe, recalling her days in Motown’s recording studios. “And then I some backup singers, some girls I learned a lot from. They were a couple years older than me, not much older. … The Supremes and also Martha Reeves & The Vandellas.”
She also released a self-titled LP through Barnaby Records, according to Discogs.

W.W. AND THE DIXIE DANCEKINGS, from left, Conny Van Dyke, (aka Connie Van Dyke), Burt Reynolds, 1975

On television, Van Dyke took guest-starring roles on Ironside, Adam-12, Nakia, Barbary Coast, and Police Woman in the 1960s and 1970s. She also made numerous appearances on the game show Match Game.

In the 2000s, Van Dyke returned to the small screen in the with appearances in Cold Case and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Van Dyke’s film roles include parts in 1961’s Like Father, Like Son, 1969’s Hell’s Angels ‘69, 1975’s Framed, and 2004’s Shiner. She also costarred with Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, and Art Carney in the 1975 film W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings, as seen above.