Her death was confirmed by her daughters, Kidada and Rashida Jones. Lipton received a diagnosis of colon cancer in 2004.
She was 22 when she achieved instant stardom on the ABC police drama “The Mod Squad” (1968-73), one of the first prime-time series to acknowledge the existence of the hippie counterculture and an early example of multiracial casting.
The tag line — “First they got busted, then they got badges” — referred to three attractive, street-wise flower children (“One black, one white, one blonde,” as another tag line explained) who, after some trouble with the law, joined the police force and worked undercover. Lipton received four Emmy nominations and a Golden Globe Award for her role.
She largely disappeared from the screen until she appeared in David Lynch’s 1990-91 cult-hit series, “Twin Peaks,” about a teenage girl’s murder and the surprising number of dark secrets in her Pacific Northwest hometown. There was Lipton — seemingly untouched by time, with the same straight blond hair, slim figure, radiant skin and air of vulnerability — as Norma Jennings, the unhappily married but beatific owner of the Double R Diner.
She returned as the same character in “Twin Peaks: The Return,” in 2017, and in the show’s spinoffs, including “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.”
Margaret Ann Lipton was born on Aug. 30, 1946, in New York City, one of three children of Harold Lipton, a corporate lawyer, and Rita (Benson) Lipton, an artist. Peggy grew up in Lawrence, one of the prestigious “five towns” on Long Island, and eventually attended Professional Children’s School in Manhattan. She also began modeling in her teens and studied acting with Uta Hagen.
In 1974, Lipton married Quincy Jones, the Grammy Award-winning musician and producer, and largely retired from acting — with the exception of a television movie, “The Return of Mod Squad,” in 1979, which she did as a personal favor to old friends. The couple separated in 1986 and divorced in 1990.
Complete information on survivors was not immediately available.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.