Della Reese dead: TV star and singer dies aged 86

Della Reese, the actress and gospel-influenced singer who in middle age found her greatest fame as Tess, the wise angel in the long-running television drama “Touched by an Angel, has died at the age 86.

The star “passed away peacefully at her California home surrounded by love” on Sunday, her husband Franklin Lett and her family said in a statement.

The statement was posted on the family's behalf by Reese's co-star Roma Downey on her Instagram page.

Before Touched by an Angel debuted in 1994, Reese was mainly known as a singer, although she had costarred on Chico and the Man, Charlie and Company and The Royal Family and hosted her own talk show, Della.

She appeared on numerous shows such as Night Court, L.A. Law, and Designing Women, but wrote in her 1997 autobiography that she had difficulty being typecast until she landed her Touched by an Angel role.

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