Craig T. Nelson Remembers Late “Coach” Costar Shelley Fabares: ‘She Was a Foundational Part of My Life’
Craig T. Nelson Remembers Late “Coach” Costar Shelley Fabares: ‘She Was a Foundational Part of My Life’
Victoria EdelMon, August 24, 2026 at 4:20 PM UTC
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Craig T. Nelson (left) and Shelley Fabares in ‘Coach’Credit: ABC/Getty -
Craig T. Nelson remembered his late Coach co-star Shelley Fabares
Fabares, who also starred on The Donna Reed Show and One Day at a Time, died Aug. 22 at the age of 82
Nelson called Fabares a “great and grand lady” who was a “rock” during the run of Coach from 1989 to 1997
Craig T. Nelson is remembering his Coach co-star Shelley Fabares.
Fabares died on Saturday, Aug. 22, at the age of 82, PEOPLE confirmed. The actress started her career as a child, appearing in The Donna Reed Show and singing the hit song “Johnny Angel.” She also starred in three movies with Elvis Presley and in later seasons of the sitcom One Day at a Time.
Then she was cast alongside Nelson, 82, in Coach, an ABC sitcom that premiered in 1989. On the show, Nelson played the titular coach, Hayden Fox, who leads a college football team. Fabares played his love interest (and later wife), TV news anchor Christine Armstrong.
After her family, including her husband M*A*S*H star Mike Farrell, announced her death on Aug. 23, Nelson told Entertainment Weekly in a statement, “Shelley was a great and grand lady… just a rock. I will miss her. She was a foundational part of my life during the run of Coach.”
Craig T. Nelson (left) and Shelley Fabares (right) in ‘Coach’Credit: ABC/Getty
He called Fabares “just an extraordinary woman.” He continued, “She always had a smile. She was welcoming in the midst of chaos and always someone I could go to for advice and counsel, not only myself but others as well. I’ll remember you with love, Shelley Fabares.”
When Coach premiered in 1989, it initially struggled in the ratings, but when ABC executives decided to pair the show with Roseanne, it found success.
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Fabares told the Los Angeles Timesin 1993, “I did always feel from the very beginning if they could find the right spot for us, this was a show that would last.” Over the years, it continued to find viewers, no matter where ABC put it in the schedule.
Shelley Fabares (left) and Craig T. Nelson in ‘Coach’Credit: ABC/Getty
Fabares was nominated for two Emmys for her work on Coach, which ran for nine seasons and 200 episodes. Her aunt, Nanette Fabray, was also a working actress and appeared as the mother of Fabares’ Christine in multiple episodes of Coach. She had also played the mother of Fabares’ character on One Day at a Time years earlier.
On a 2024 episode of the That’s Classic podcast, Fabares said that working on Coach was “a fabulous experience.” She noted, “I hadn’t been working for a while, not because I didn’t want to but I just didn’t get hired for anything.”
She remembered thinking, “If somebody were to ask me what kind of show would I like to do — nobody was asking me for anything — but if they asked me, I would have actually expressed basically what Coach was, the kind of show, the character I would be playing, what the stories would be about . . . the way I would want to do a show, never dreaming that I would get that part.” Being part of the show was “thrilling,” she said.
She called Nelson “a brilliant actor” and noted that the late Jerry Van Dyke, who died in 2018 at the age of 86, made her “laugh and laugh” during rehearsals. Van Dyke, the younger brother of Dick Van Dyke, played defensive coordinator and assistant coach Luther Van Dam, and Fabares said Luther was based on Jerry.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
