Tisa Farrow, a former actor born, like sister Mia Farrow, to show business parents Maureen O’Sullivan and John Farrow, died unexpectedly Wednesday morning. She was 72.
Her death was announced on social media by Mia Farrow, who said that Tisa apparently died in her sleep.
“If there is a Heaven, undoubtedly my beautiful sister Tisa is being welcomed there,” Mia wrote on Instagram and X. “She was the best of us — I have never met a more generous and loving person. She loved life & never complained. Ever. She was nurse for 27 years, a wonderful sister to Steffi, Prudence and me, a devoted mother to Jason, who died in Iraq, Bridget and little grandson Kylor – the lights of her life.”
While never achieving the fame of sister Mia – or, for that matter, sister Prudence, who was immortalized by John Lennon in the classic 1968 Beatles White Album song “Dear Prudence” – Tisa Farrow nonetheless had a fairly thriving career as a model and actor throughout the 1970s.
Mia Farrow and Tisa Farrow (1979) at Trader Vic’s in New York City
Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection/Getty Images
Born Theresa Magdalena Farrow on July 22, 1951, in Los Angeles, Tisa made her movie debut in 1970 with a role in director John Trent’s Homer, costarring as the girlfriend of a the title character (Don Scardino), a Wisconsin high school student facing the uncertainties of the era including the Vietnam War.
She followed up that role with, among others, appearances in feature film And Hope To Die (1972), the late-’70s TV-movies The Initiation of Sarah and The Ordeal of Patty Hearst, 1979’s Zombie and William Richert’s Winter Kills, a dark comedy thriller that’s gained a cult following over the decades. Her final credit is the 1980 Italian horror film Anthropophagus.
Don Scardino and, in her film debut, Tisa Farrow, ‘Homer’ (1970)
Everett Collection
Farrow had a cameo role as a party guest in Woody Allen’s Manhattan (1979), the only time she appeared in a film directed by the then-romantic partner of sister Mia.
After leaving show business, Farrow pivoted to a nearly three-decade career in nursing. She had a son, Jason, with music manager and film producer Terry Deane, whose 2009 obituary lists Tisa as a “lifelong friend.” Their son, Jason Dene (his father had added an “a” to his own last name to avoid confusion with actor Terry Dene), was a U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class who died in Iraq on May 24, 2008.
Tisa Farrow’s survivors include daughter Bridget; grandson Kylor; and siblings Mia, Prudence, Stephanie and John. Among her nieces and nephews is the journalist Ronan Farrow, son of Mia; complete information on survivors was not immediately available. In addition to her son, she also was predeceased by her actor mother Maureen O’Sullivan and director-producer John Farrow, and brothers Michael and Patrick.