Carla Zilbersmith, Canadian-born American actress, singer and comedian, has died from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis she was 47

Singer-actress-comedian Carla Zilbersmith has died from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis she was 47. Zilbersmith did her best not to let being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the progressive neurodegenerative disease, dampen her high-spirited sense of humor.

"For those of you who don't know, I was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease a couple of weeks ago.... I hate baseball," the San Francisco Chronicle reported the red-haired performer telling an audience at Berkeley's Hillside Club in January 2008. "I'd really much rather have been diagnosed with a basketball disease. Maybe Wilt Chamberlain disease. That's the one where you have sex 20,000 times and then you die."

Zilbersmith, who maintained her sense of humor throughout the progression of her disease and inspired others with how she faced death, died Monday at her home in Berkeley, said her son, Maclen Zilber. She was 47.

"Leave Them Laughing," a documentary about Zilbersmith by Academy Award-winning director John Zaritsky, had its world premiere May 6 at the Hot Docs international documentary festival in Toronto, where the "musical comedy about dying" won the Special Jury Prize for Canadian documentary.

"I've never had so many laughs with any individual as with Carla," Zaritsky told The Times, "but at the same time, she was truly an inspiration for all of us."

As a performer, Zilbersmith received notice for her one-woman show "Wedding Singer Blues," which had its Los Angeles premiere at Upstairs at the Coronet in 2006.

In his review in The Times, David C. Nichols called the show "a festive satirical package" and described Zilbersmith as "a strong-voiced find with a knack for spot-on characterizations that recall Lily Tomlin, dialects, funny story lines and archetypes flying back and forth faster than a rogue garter."

Zilbersmith began having problems with her legs and fell down a number of times in 2007 before being diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease that December.

She retired in spring 2008 after 14 years as artistic director and coordinator of the drama department at College of Marin.

"She was an incredibly inspiring creative force on the campus and had a very, very strong following of students," said W. Allen Taylor, who took over Zilbersmith's position when she retired.

The last show Zilbersmith directed at the college was "War and Peacemeal: the Musical," a loose adaptation of Aristophanes' antiwar play "Peace."

Zilbersmith compared the themes of the play with her battle with Lou Gehrig's disease.

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