Charlotte Rae, star of US sitcom The Facts Of Life

Charlotte Rae, who played a wise and caring housemother to a brood of teenage girls on the long-running sitcom The Facts Of Life, has died at the age of 92.

Spokesman Harlan Boll said Rae died on Sunday at her Los Angeles home.

Rae originated the character of Edna Garrett in 1978 during the first season of NBC’s comedy Diff’rent Strokes, then took Mrs Garrett with her for the spin-off The Facts Of Life, which premiered the following season.

Initially set at a girls’ boarding school, that NBC series ran for nine seasons, though Rae left after its seventh year.

Her many stage roles include that of Mammy Yokum, created by her for the 1956 Broadway musical Li’l Abner.

The Facts role came to Rae after years of theatre and television performances. She earned an Emmy nomination for the part, and she was a two-time Tony nominee for her work on Broadway.

Her last feature film credit was Ricki And The Flash with Meryl Streep in 2015. That same year she released her autobiography The Facts of My Life, co-written by her son Larry Strauss.

Born Charlotte Rae Lubotsky in Milwaukee, on April 22 1926, she had studied drama at Northwestern University, then moved to New York where, despite early plans to be a “serious” actress, she quickly found work doing satirical sketches in Greenwich Village clubs.

It was there that Broadway producers discovered her, leading to her first Broadway musical, called Three Wishes For Jamie, in 1952.

Rae made numerous TV appearances in 1950s drama anthologies including The US Steel Hour, Playhouse 90 and Armstrong Circle Theatre sharing the black-and-white screen with such actors as Zero Mostel, Art Carney and Gertrude Berg.

Charlotte Rae was 92.