Many won’t recognize the name Ellen Albertini Dow , but everyone knows her face. She played the kindly, silly little grandma in The Wedding Singer , where she stole the show by singing “Rapper’s Delight” in pink shawl. On Monday, at 101, the actress died.
But you don’t just know her from the Adam Sandler film. Dow has appeared on Seinfeld, ER, New Girl, Sister Act , and – in her perhaps her most vulgar and certainly most hilarious role – she played the confused, racist and homophobic Grandma Cleary in the Wedding Crashers .
(Warning: Video contains suggestive content)
Ellen’s career in front of the camera was actually quite brief – it began in her 70s and lasted almost up until her death , Deadline reported. Before that, her life story is quite interesting.
Born in Pennsylvania in 1914, Ellen Albertini Dow was the baby of seven children born to Italian immigrant parents. She eventually studied dance with Hanya Holm and Martha Graham, and learned the acting ropes from none other than mimes Marcel Marceau and Jacques LeCog in Paris. She joined a Borscht Belt comedy troupe in the Catskill Mountains; and worked with stock companies that traveled through Long Island, New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina; directed and choreographed for the stage, and began and produced the Albertini Mime Players for nearly two decades.
After that, Ellen spent three decades as a drama and dance teacher. Her husband, Eugene , taught as well, and founded the theater department at Pierce College in California, ABC News added. He died in 2004.
It wasn’t until the 1980s – she retired from teaching in 1985 – that Dow had her first on-screen credit. By then, she was in her 70s and appeared a slew of TV shows and movies.
Which means you’ve seen her a lot – on The Twilight Zone, Moonlighting, Murphy Brown, The Golden Girls, The Wonder Years, Star Trek: The Next Generation, ER, Seinfeld, Family Guy and Shameless ; films My Blue Heaven and Sister Act .
Now that she has died, her significant body of work remains to reveal an actress who loved to be funny – and was obviously very good at it. Her hilarious rendition of “Rapper’s Delight” appeared on the film’s soundtrack and ended up going double platinum.
[Photo Courtesy Getty Images]
