Dee Freeman, a familiar face across decades of television — from The Young and the Restless to Sistas — has died. She was 66.

Freeman passed away following a stage 4 lung cancer diagnosis, her publicist Desirae L. Benson confirmed. Her family also shared the news in an emotional Instagram post on Friday, April 3.

“On behalf of her family, it is with deepest sadness that we share this update with you. Dee passed away peacefully on April 2, after a brave and fearless fight with cancer,” the family captioned a photo of the actress.

“Thank you to everyone who supported Dee during her battle. It blew her away to know how many people cared about her and were pulling for her,” the caption continued. “ We know Dee is up there in heaven, being the force of nature she always was. Now she’s doing it with her angel wings on. Rest in peace, Dee.”

In her own statement, Benson remembered Freeman as “someone I truly respected and admired,” highlighting the resilience she showed throughout her illness.

“Even in the face of stage 4 lung cancer, she showed up with courage and dignity,” Benson wrote. “Dee had a quiet power that commanded respect without ever needing to demand it.

“Her legacy is not just in her work, but in how she made people feel — and that will stay with us forever,” she concluded.

Before launching her acting career, Freeman served six years in the United States Marine Corps — a chapter that underscored the discipline and determination she would later bring to the screen. She made her onscreen debut in a 1995 episode of the ABC sitcom Coach, per Deadline.

Over the years, Freeman built an extensive TV résumé, with appearances on Seinfeld, ER, The X-Files, Dexter, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Shameless, and NCIS: Los Angeles, among others. She also appeared in The Young and the Restless in 1997 and 2009, and led the satirical parody show Pretty the Series from 2010 to 2015.

More recently, she appeared in Tyler Perry’s Sistas in January, with her last prior credit coming in a 2022 episode of Reasonable Doubt.

Freeman is survived by her two children, Amber and Shane.