Paula Shaw, an actress best known to Hallmark viewers for her warm, spunky grandmother roles and to students for leading The Max self‑expression workshop at California’s Esalen Institute, died Wednesday morning, Sept. 10, 2025. She was 84.

Her passing was confirmed on the website for The Max. "It is with heavy hearts that we announce Paula passed away peacefully on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025 morning at 9:00 am," the statement said. "Paula touched countless lives through The MAX, the Mastery, and her transformational work. Her legacy lives on in the communities she created and the lives she changed."

Shaw's screen career spanned decades and multiple genres. After relocating to Los Angeles to appear in the West Coast premiere of Gus Weill's play Geese, she caught the attention of Lee Strasberg and was invited to join The Actors Studio. By the 1970s, she was a member of the improv troupe Synergy Trust and began booking regular television work, with guest appearances on series such as The Bob Newhart Show, Starsky & Hutch, Barney Miller, Three's Company, Lou Grant and Ironside.

She moved into feature films in the early 1980s, earning a supporting role as Wulla Jean in the 1982 musical comedy The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas opposite Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton. Later credits included a coroner in Christopher Nolan’s Insomnia (2002) and the role of Pamela Voorhees, the mother of Jason Voorhees, in Freddy vs. Jason (2003), a part previously played by Betsy Palmer.

On television, Shaw starred as Mrs. Byrne on the Canadian sitcom Mr. Young from 2011 to 2013. Her relationship with Hallmark began in 2012 with the TV movie Hitched for the Holidays and continued the following year when she joined the cast of Cedar Cove as the mother of Andie MacDowell’s character. She became a fan favorite for multiple Hallmark films, including It Was Always You (2021), Coming Home for Christmas (2017), Wedding of a Lifetime (2022) and her final screen credit, Round and Round (2023). One Hallmark moment remembered by viewers was her advice in a scene that the character would know true love when she felt a "zing."

Alongside her acting, Shaw built a parallel career as a teacher and mentor. She developed and taught The Max, a course in self‑expression, for more than three decades at the Esalen Institute. An Esalen post noted, "PAULA SHAW taught THE MAX workshops at Esalen Institute for over 32 years," and described the course as having "maintains a reputation as one of Esalen's most edgy offerings." The organization also identified her as a former EST trainer.

Tributes from colleagues and fans followed the announcement. Hallmark screenwriter Julie Sherman Wolfe recalled Shaw as both a colleague and confidante, writing on Instagram Stories that the two often spoke by FaceTime after Shaw filmed Hanukkah on Rye and that Shaw "will always be one of my honorary bubbies." The Max's statement emphasized Shaw's influence as a teacher, saying her legacy endures in the communities she created.

Shaw's career demonstrated a balance of character work on screen and sustained commitment to mentoring performers and students off camera. Details about survivors and funeral arrangements were not announced in the initial statement from The Max.