Charlotte Rae
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| Charlotte Rae | |
 Rae at the 1988 Emmy Awards |
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| Born | Charlotte Rae Lubotsky April 22, 1926 Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
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Charlotte Rae (born April 22, 1926) is an American character actress, 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 1978 to 1986). She received a Best Actress Emmy Nomination 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.
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[edit] Biography
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, a pianist, writer, and composer, and Beverly, a opera singer), and graduated from Shorewood High School in 1944.[3] Her family lived in Milwaukee, during Charlotte's first 10 years of her life. In an 2002 interview, Charlotte said she was 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 like Morton DaCosta, who was the director of the Music Man on Broadway. When Charlotte was 10, her family moved to Shorewood, Wisconsin, where she was raised. She also said that she had great teachers in high school that had a beautiful campus. Rae attended but did not complete her studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
When a radio personality told her last name wouldn't do, she dropped her last name Lubotsky and changed it to Rae, her middle name, becoming Charlotte Rae.
From there, she moved to New York City in 1948, where she performed a lot of stage and theater. She lived there until 1974.
[edit] Personal life
She was married to composer John Strauss on November 4, 1951, with whom she had two sons, and was divorced in 1976. She has three grandchildren. One of her sons is autistic.
In 1998, Rae's oldest sister, Beverly, an opera singer, died of pancreatic cancer.
[edit] Popular stage actress and singer
A stage actress since the 1950s, she appeared in Three Wishes for Jamie, The Threepenny Opera with Bea Arthur, 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 wrote the song "Modest Maid" especially for Rae). The album was issued on CD in 2006 by PS Classics. Also in the 1950s, Rae made several acclaimed appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show.
She appeared in Ben Bagley's revue The Littlest Revue (and on its cast album) in 1956, appearing alongside the likes of Joel Grey and Tammy Grimes 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 also 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.
[edit] Popular character actress
Since 1954, Rae became a top-notched character actress making her debut on an episode of Look Up and Live. This part led to other role such as: The United States Steel Hour, Armstrong Circle Theatre, Kraft Television Theatre, NBC Television Opera Theatre, The Philco Television Playhouse, 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, among many others. She also guest-starred in Norman Lear's, All in the Family and Good Times.
[edit] TV roles
Her first significant success was in the sitcom Car 54, Where Are You? (1961–1963) as 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. Rae appeared in early seasons of Sesame Street as Molly the Mail Lady. In 1964, she appeared in a commercial for Oil Heat. In the commercial, she was taking a shower, while telling people how wonderful Oil Heat was. At the end of the commercial, the announcer asked her if she knew she was on television, and she responded in her usual "trying to be sexy" voice, "Yes, I know!", then giggling softly afterward.
[edit] Diff'rent Strokes & The Facts of Life
Beginning in 1978, Fred Silverman, future producer and former head of CBS, ABC and NBC, insisted that Norman Lear would produced Diff'rent Strokes, because both networks (with the exception of NBC), whose sitcoms were winning in the ratings. At the same time, Silverman knew NBC must have a good comedy, hence, Lear hired Rae immediately for the role of housemother Edna Garrett, because she was one of Norman's favorite women. After Rae got the call, she co-starred in Diff'rent Strokes, opposite Conrad Bain, and appeared in all 24 episodes of the first season. Her character proved to be so popular that producers decided to do an episode which will spin-off. On an episode called The Girls School, this episode was about the girls who attend a private school, Eastland, the same school where Kimberly [played by the late Dana Plato] goes to school. After the last episode of Strokes, Rae went to the heads of NBC in July 1979, with a potential offer for a brand new sitcom that would spin-off. Hence, The Facts of Life, was born. The program focused on a housemother, residing with three young ladies, in a prestigious private school. Charlotte took the risk of starring in a successful TV series. During its first season, it wasn't an immediate hit, and was also on the brink of facing cancelation, as well. However, thanks to good ratings and a new timeslot, the show became a ratings winner between 1980 and 1986, making it one of the longest-running NBC sitcoms ever. In addition, her show focused on a lot of issues that were dealt with for most of the 1980s, such as: weight loss, depression, AIDS, drugs, alcohol, autism, celebral palsy, dating, marriage, among many other topics.
Despite all the fame Charlotte gained on TV, and 1 health problem she faced, she was almost ready to leave the show. During the series' 6th season, her contract allowed her to miss a few episodes, before the following season, she missed most of the episodes, before leaving the show (for good) at the beginning of the 1986-1987 season, where her character got remarried and joins the Peace Corps, hence her old college friend Cloris Leachman took over the role of Mrs. Garrett sister, Beverly Ann Stickle, for the last 2 years on-air, before cancelation in 1988, after 200 episodes. The producers were displeased with her decision, hence, she returned to the stage.
Also starring on Facts, were a lot of unfamiliar actresses/actors who were only on the first season before they were all fired, Felice Schachter as Nancy Olson, Julie Piekarski as Sue Ann Weaver, Julie Ann Haddock as Cindy Webster, Molly Ringwald as Molly Parker, and John Lawlor as Steven Bradley. In addition, the show cast more unfamiliar actresses who also appeared on the spin-off show, Diff'rent Strokes, consisting of former Mouseketeer Lisa Whelchel as rich spoiled-brat, Blair Warner and Kim Fields as resident gossip, Dorothy "Tootie" Ramsey. Rae approached a 13-year-old unknown star Mindy Cohn at Westlake School in Los Angeles, California, who suggested to her to take the role of smart Natalie Green. At the auditions, Rae liked Mindy's acting so much that she would play the role. During the second season, Nancy McKeon played Jo, a young woman who was a "tomboy". All of Rae's co-stars had feuded and delivered gossip on-camera as well as off-camera, but had a lot of fun and became friends, otherwise, esp. Cohn. During the seventh season of the show, two new stars George Clooney and Mackenzie Astin joined the cast.
As Rae went over to Westlake and interviewed several young actresses for the role of Natalie, Cohn said if there was ever a chance that she would get the part, after she was encouraged by her: "I was just one of the random kids that was picked to go talk to the people, and we had lunch and we chatted." After the meeting, Mindy also said about the heads of NBC who would ask her to play the role Charlotte Rae had once created for her, "The next day, the head master called me into his office and said, 'These people want to write a part for you in the show they're doing.' And I'm like, 'Whatever,' you know? As long as I'm not in trouble, terrific." Of Rae's absence from the show, Mindy found out what the writers would do for her mentor's future was, "Instead of going to Mrs. Garrett [played by Charlotte Rae], as a confidante, we go to each other. They wrote it that way. There wasn't really a need for an adult when you've got four adult girls living under the same roof, unless that adult role changed, and it didn't." She also said when Charlotte finally left the show was, "It wasn't like, 'Oh, my God!' It was sort of lie 'We get it! We get it! We love you!" The last thing Cohn said of Leachman's character not playing "second-fiddle" to Rae's character in anyway was, "Cloris's character was never the confidante, was never the housemother. She was just kind of, you know, the ringleader of the circus, which I think was brillant on the writers' part --- to not make her, all of a sudden, this authority figure. She just was taking over the store and was going to, you know, rule to roost for a while until Mrs. Garrett got back." After cancelation, Rae & Cohn, are still close friends with the other cast. Beverly Ann's death in 1998, drew Rae & Cohn, closer, as Cohn was so grief-stricken to hear of a star's sister's death from lung cancer. Charlotte created the character of Beverly Ann for Leachman to play on The Facts of Life. In 2001, Cohn, Rae, amongst other cast members were reunited in a TV Movie, The Facts of Life Reunion. In 2006, Cohn, Fields & Whelchel (except Rae) were all invited to guest star on Today. The following year, in 2007, the entire cast (which included Rae & Cohn themselves) were invited to attend the TV Land Awards, where the show, along the actresses were nominated for both awards, Most Beautiful Braces (Kim Fields) and The "When Bad Teens Go Good" Award (Nancy McKeon), but both didn't win. However, several of the cast sang the theme song, including Charlotte herself (who sang the show's first theme song, when it debuted).
[edit] Other roles
In 1979, she played the Lady in Pink in the musical movie Hair. Other appearances on screen have included roles in The Worst Witch television movie and on the series Sisters, 101 Dalmatians: The Series, The King of Queens, and ER
In 1993, she was the voice of Aunt Prestine Figg in Tom and Jerry: The Movie. She also appeared in The Vagina Monologues in New York. 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] Health problem
In 1982, she went to the hospital for the doctors to place a pacemaker in her heart.
[edit] Honors
On June 12, 2008, Rae attended the James Stewart Centennial Tribute at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California, which was hosted by Robert Wagner. Among the attendees were Ann Rutherford, Shirley Jones, Cora Sue Collins, and James's daughter, Kelly Stewart. Carroll Baker was supposed to attend the tribute, however, in case she did show up was nowhere to be found in the Academy's photos.
[edit] Quotes
Charlotte: "You can take wonderfully talented actors, wonderfully talented writers and producers, and, uh, do a wonderful show!... but if it doesn't hit with the public in two minutes, it's bye-bye" (Source: Silveropossum.homestead.com/CharlotteRae)
Charlotte: "Because of the power of television, I was visible to everybody all over the world. But there are many things in the theater that are more fulfilling and that I look forward to doing more. But really, I love it all: theater, film, television." (Source: Silveropossum.homestead.com/CharlotteRae)
Charlotte on her feud with Joan Collins: "Joan Collins is a bitch, there's no doubt about it, everyone says she's an extremely difficult person. I know that Joan Collins is a bitch!" (Source: TheInsider.com)
Charlotte on her professional friendship with Norman Lear: "So open. So up front. Not a big shot. Not afraid to take a risk, make a mistake." (Source: TVGuide.com)
Charlotte who said in 1979 about her small, awkward, plump stature: "How did I fit? I didn't. I felt inferior. I had this tremendous need to perform. I wanted to be acceptable to my peers. To feel equal. I had an older sister, Beverly, who seemed to be very secure. I had a younger sister, Mimi, who was cute! I thought if I could just be a big star, I'd feel like somebody too." (Source: TVGuide.com)
Charlotte on theater: "I became drunk with power. I was burning to get to New York. But my parents begged me to stay. I needed to graduate, they said. I did soap opera on radio in Chicago. When I told the director my name was Lubotsky, he said, 'But you can't use that.' My father was very hurt. 'But why?', he wanted to know." (Source: TVGuide.com)
Charlotte on Teresa Brewer: "Teresa Brewer and I stood on the bar and sang 'Can't Help Lovin' That Man' and 'Cockeyed Optimist. Sometimes a drunk would give me 50 cents. My father came in once and nearly died. With tears in his eyes, he told me the cigarette girl had tried to hustle him." (Source: TVGuide.com)
Charlotte on having an on-screen romance with Adam Sandler: "On a table from one to 10, I rate him 'not bad'". (Source: TVGuide.com)
Charlotte: "I can't even go to Barbados without people wanting to hug me and 'Oh, Mrs. Garrett!', you know, it The Facts of Life really had an impact on their lives." (Source: USIMDB.com)
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Charlotte Rae |
- Charlotte Rae at the Internet Broadway Database
- Charlotte Rae at the Internet Movie Database
- Charlotte Rae at TV.com
- Charlotte Rae's album at PS Classics
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