Ostrovskii's generalization of the Marcinkiewicz theorem implies that if an entire characteristic functions of a probability distribution satisfies $\log^+\log|f(z)|=o(|z|),\; z\to\infty,$ and is zero-free then the distribution is normal. We show that under the same growth condition, absence of zeros in a wide vertical strip implies that the distribution is close to a normal one. This generalizes and simplifies a recent result of Michelen and Sahasrabudhe.