Charlotte Rae

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Charlotte Rae

Rae at the 1988 Emmy Awards
Born Charlotte Rae Lubotsky
April 22, 1926 (1926-04-22) (age 85)
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
Occupation Actress, singer
Years active 1952–present
Spouse John Strauss (1951-1976; divorced); 2 sons

Charlotte Rae (born April 22, 1926) is a prolific American character actress of stage, comedienne, singer and dancer, who in her six decades of television is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Edna Garrett in the sitcoms Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts of Life (in which she starred from 1979 to 1986). She received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy in 1982. She also appeared in two Facts of Life television movies: The Facts of Life Goes to Paris in 1982 and The Facts of Life Reunion in 2001. She also provided the voice of Nanny in the cartoon 101 Dalmatians: The Series.

Contents

[edit] Early life

She was born Charlotte Rae Lubotsky in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Russian Jewish immigrants Esther (née Ottenstein), who was a childhood friend of Golda Meir, and Meyer Lubotsky, a retail tire business owner.[1][2] She had two sisters, Miriam and the late Beverly (December 21, 1921 – June 2, 1998).[3]

Rae graduated from Shorewood High School in 1944.[4] At Shorewood High School, she had a best friend, Natalie (whom she created the character for future co-star Mindy Cohn to play on The Facts of Life).

For the first ten years of her life, Rae's family lived in Milwaukee, after which they moved to Shorewood, Wisconsin. In a 2002 interview, she said she had been interested in acting as a little girl. She did a lot of radio work and was with the Wauwatosa Children's Theatre. At 16, she was an apprentice with the Port Players, a professional theater company that came for the summer to Milwaukee, with several established actors such as Morton DaCosta, who was the director of The Music Man on Broadway. Rae attended Northwestern University, although she did not complete her studies. There she met Cloris Leachman, who many years later succeeded Rae on The Facts of Life for the show's last two seasons.[5] At Northwestern she met several unknown stars and producers, including Agnes Nixon, Charlton Heston, Paul Lynde, and songwriter, Sheldon Harnick. Each summer, while attending college, she also appeared its annual student theatrical extravaganza, the Waa-Mu Show.[citation needed]

When a radio personality told her that her last name wouldn't do, she dropped it. She moved to New York City in 1948, where she performed in the theater and nightclubs. During her early years in New York, she worked at the Village Vanguard (alongside up-and-coming talents such as singer Richard Dyer-Bennett) and at the posh Blue Angel, home to budding talents Barbra Streisand, Mike Nichols and Elaine May. She moved to Los Angeles in 1974.[citation needed]

[edit] Popular stage actress and singer

A stage actress since the 1950s, she appeared in Three Wishes for Jamie, The Threepenny Opera, Li'l Abner, and Pickwick. In 1955 she released her first (and only) solo album, Songs I Taught My Mother, which featured "silly, sinful, and satirical" songs by (among others) Sheldon Harnick, Vernon Duke, John La Touche, Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hart, and Marc Blitzstein (who reportedly wrote the song "Modest Maid" especially for Rae).[citation needed] The album was issued on CD in 2006 by PS Classics.

She appeared in Ben Bagley's revue The Littlest Revue (and on its cast album) in 1956, appearing alongside Joel Grey and Tammy Grimes, among others, and singing songs by Sheldon Harnick ("The Shape of Things"), Vernon Duke ("Summer is a-Comin' In"), and Charles Strouse & Lee Adams ("Spring Doth Let Her Colours Fly"), a parody of opera singer Helen Traubel's Las Vegas night club act), among others. Rae later appeared on Bagley's studio recording Rodgers & Hart Revisited with Dorothy Loudon, Cy Young, and Arthur Siegel, singing "Everybody Loves You (When You're Asleep)" and in several other duets and ensembles.[citation needed]

Rae received two Tony Award nominations during her Broadway career. The first in 1966 for Best Featured Actress in a Musical in Pickwick (losing to Bea Arthur from Mame). The second came in 1969 for Best Actress in a play for Morning, Noon and Night (losing to Julie Harris in Forty Carats).[citation needed]

[edit] Popular character actress

In 1954, Rae on her way to becoming a top-notch character actress, made her TV debut on an episode of Look Up and Live. This led to roles on other shows such as The United States Steel Hour, Armstrong Circle Theatre, Kraft Television Theatre, NBC Television Opera Theatre, The Philco Television Playhouse, The Colgate Comedy Hour (where she first became friends with a unknown producer Norman Lear), The DuPont Show of the Week, The Phil Silvers Show, Way Out, The Defenders, Temperatures Rising, The Love Boat, The Partridge Family, Love, American Style, McMillan & Wife, Barney Miller, 227, Murder, She Wrote, St. Elsewhere, Diagnosis: Murder, All in the Family and Good Times. In 1993, Rae voiced the character of "Aunt Pristine Figg" in Tom and Jerry: The Movie.

[edit] TV roles

Her first significant success was on the sitcom Car 54, Where Are You? (1961–1963), in which she played Sylvia Schnauser, the wife of Officer Leo Schnauser (played by Al Lewis). She was nominated for an Emmy Award for her supporting role in the 1975 drama Queen of the Stardust Ballroom. In January 1975, Rae became a cast member on the ABC television comedy Hot l Baltimore, wherein she played Mrs. Bellotti, whose dysfunctional adult son Moose, who was never actually seen, lived at the hotel. Mrs. Bellotti, who was a bit odd herself, would visit Moose and then laugh about all the odd situations that Moose would get into with the others living at the hotel. Rae also appeared in early seasons of Sesame Street as Molly the Mail Lady.

In 1960, she appeared in a commercial for the National Oil Fuel Institute in which, while taking a shower, she explained how wonderful oil heat was. At the end of the commercial, the announcer asked her if she knew she was on television, to which she responded, in her usual "trying to be sexy" voice, "Yes, I know!" and then giggled softly afterward.[6]

[edit] Diff'rent Strokes & The Facts of Life

In 1978, NBC was losing to both CBS and ABC in sitcom ratings, and Fred Silverman, future producer and former head of CBS, ABC, and NBC, insisted that Norman Lear produce Diff'rent Strokes. Knowing that Rae was one of Lear's favorite actresses, he hired her immediately for the role of housekeeper Edna Garrett, and she co-starred with Conrad Bain in all 24 episodes of the first season. Her character proved to be so popular that producers decided to do an episode that could lead to a spinoff. That episode (called "The Girls School") was about girls attending a fictional school called Eastland. In July 1979, Rae proposed the idea for the spinoff. NBC greenlighted the show, and The Facts of Life was born.[citation needed]

The program, which focused on a housemother residing with four young ladies in a prestigious private school, dealt with many of the major issues facing teenage girls in the 1980s, including weight loss, depression, AIDS, drugs, alcohol, and dating. Thanks to a new time slot the show became a ratings winner between 1980 and 1986. Midway throughout both the 1984-85 and 1985-86 seasons, she missed several episodes, all because she was planning on leaving the show, while at the same time, the story lines focused more on the girls, in lieu of Mrs. Garrett. At the beginning of the eighth season, Rae left the show reportedly owing to a health problem. Cloris Leachman was then brought in as Mrs. Garrett's sister, Beverly Ann Stickle, for the show's last two years. In 1988, after 209 episodes, The Facts of Life was canceled. Mindy Cohn who said about being hired to playing Natalie, after Charlotte talked her into it was, "The next day, I get a call from the Headmasters' office and saying, ‘These people want to talk to you’, and Charlotte said, ‘I’m falling madly in love with you, I want to create a role for you on the show. We’re going to call you [Natalie], and do you want to do this?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know! I mean 8th grade lady, what do I know? Is this going to mess up with my tennis team schedule, you know?’"[citation needed]

In 2001, Cohn, Rae, and other cast members were reunited in a TV Movie, The Facts of Life Reunion. In 2007, the entire cast was invited to attend the TV Land Awards where several members of the cast, including Rae, sang the show's theme song. On April 19, 2011, the entire cast were reunited - a second time, to attend the TV Land Awards, where the show was nominated and won the award for Pop Culture Icon. The same day, Nancy McKeon and Kim Fields (who played Jo & Tootie, respectively) also gave a speech in honor of her 85th birthday. The cast did likewise on ABC's Good Morning America, where at the end of the segment, reporter, Cynthia McFadden wished Charlotte a happy (85th) birthday. The entire cast sang the show's theme song.[citation needed]

[edit] Other roles

In 1973 Rae played the role of Southern Comfort in Terrence McNally's spoof Whiskey at Saint Clements' Theatre off-Broadway. She appeared in The Vagina Monologues off-Broadway. In 2000, she starred as Berthe in the Paper Mill Playhouse production of Pippin. In 2007, she appeared in a cabaret show at the Plush Room in San Francisco for several performances. In the 2008 movie You Don't Mess with the Zohan, Rae has a role as an older woman who has a fling with Adam Sandler's character. On February 18, 2009 she appeared in a small role as Mrs. Ford on the "I Heart Mom" episode of Life.

[edit] Personal life

She married composer John Strauss on November 4, 1951, had two sons, one of whom is autistic,[citation needed] and divorced in 1976. She has three grandchildren. In 2011, her former husband, John Strauss, died after a long battle with Parkinson's disease.[7]

[edit] Health issues

In 1982, Rae had a pacemaker implanted in her heart. In 2009, due to the frequency of pancreatic cancer in her own family, Rae was screened and diagnosed early. Her mother, an uncle, and her elder sister Beverly all reportedly died of the disease. Rae is cancer free and in remission as of 2012.[8]

[edit] Nominations

Rae received two Tony Award nominations during her Broadway career. The first in 1966 for Best Featured Actress in a Musical in Pickwick.[9] The second came in 1969 for Best Actress in a play for Morning, Noon and Night.[10] She received several Emmy Award nominations for her work on TV, but never won.

On April 19, 2011, Rae and some of the Facts of Life cast (Mindy Cohn, Lisa Whelchel and Kim Fields) had won the TV Land Award for the Pop Culture Icon award. Later, her former castmates threw Rae an 85th birthday party.

[edit] Selected filmography

[edit] References

  1. ^ Charlotte Rae profile at FilmReference.com
  2. ^ TV icon brings cabaret act to town
  3. ^ Notice of death of Rae's brother-in-law, Dr. Jules Levin, widower of her sister, Beverly.
  4. ^ Auer, James. "Actress returning here for class reunion", Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, September 21, 1994. Accessed September 17, 2007.
  5. ^ Charlotte Rae curriculum vitae
  6. ^ 1960 National Oil Fuel Institute – Classic Charlotte Rae TV Commercial.
  7. ^ Death of John Strauss
  8. ^ [1]
  9. ^ Zolotow, Sam (May 31, 1966). "NOMINEES LISTED FOR TONY AWARDS". The New York Times. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60A1EFC3F5A12718DDDA80B94DD405B868AF1D3&scp=4&sq=%22charlotte%20rae%22%20emmy&st=cse. Retrieved November 8, 2011. 
  10. ^ Zolotow, Sam (March 18, 1969). "2 Musicals Get 8 Nominations For Tony Prizes". The New York Times. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30717FF3A5D137A93CAA81788D85F4D8685F9&scp=1&sq=%22charlotte%20rae%22%20morning%20noon%20and%20night&st=cse. Retrieved November 8, 2011. 

[edit] External links

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