Long-Time Hallmark Star Paula Shaw Dies at 84 – See Tributes
Actress Paula Shaw has died at the age of 84.
“It is with heavy hearts that we announce Paula passed away peacefully on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025 morning at 9:00 am,” read a statement shared on the website for her personal development workshop, The MAX. “Paula touched countless lives through The MAX, the Mastery, and her transformational work. Her legacy lives on in the communities she created and the lives she changed.”
The Esalen Institute, where Shaw taught her workshop “for over 32 years,” shared an Instagram tribute on Monday, September 15. “A professional actor and former EST trainer, she developed this self-expression course, which became a rite of passage for Esalen staff and seminarians, and until today maintains a reputation as one of Esalen’s most edgy offerings,” the organization wrote.
Fans shared their condolences in the post’s comments, with one user writing, “She changed my life in a powerful, positive way!! RIP Paula ❤️.” Another person shared, “She was a force. A classic. Core life memories made with her. RIP Paula.”
Hallmark Channel writer Julie Sherman Wolfe shared her own tribute to the late actress in a since-expired Instagram Stories post. “So sad to hear about Paula Shaw’s passing,” Wolfe wrote, per the New York Post. “We often chatted on Facetime after she filmed Hanukkah on Rye, mostly our shared heritage (and trying to figure out if we were related!).”
Kailey Schwerman / ©Hallmark Channel / Courtesy Everett Collection
Wolfe continued, “We never found out, but it didn’t matter. She will always be one of my honorary bubbies.”
In a statement to Entertainment Weekly, Shaw’s agent, Jamie Levitt, said the actress “loved making people laugh,” adding, “She created ‘family’ in every work environment. She would often speak to me of making people in production laugh… the folks behind the scenes. She tried to make everyone’s lives a little better before she left them. She made my life better.”
Born in New York in 1941, Shaw got her Hollywood start in the 1970s on shows such as The Bob Newhart Show, Starsky & Hutch, Little House on the Prairie, and Barney Miller. She went on to book roles on Three’s Company, General Hospital, Cagney & Lacey, and 21 Jump Street, and appeared alongside Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds in 1982’s The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
Shaw’s other credits include roles on The Young and the Restless, The New Addams Family, The X-Files, The Twilight Zone, and playing Jason Voorhees’ mother in the 2003 horror film Freddy vs. Jason. She also portrayed Charlotte Jeffers on the Hallmark Channel series Cedar Cove.
In recent years, Shaw notably starred in several Hallmark Channel films, including Destination Wedding, Coming Home for Christmas, Picture a Perfect Christmas, Five Star Christmas, It Was Always You, A Mrs. Miracle Christmas, The Wedding Veil Legacy, Wedding of a Lifetime, and Hanukkah on Rye.
Her most recent acting credit was the 2023 Hallmark Channel movie Round and Round, which starred Bryan Greenberg and Vic Michaelis.
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