Charlotte Rae
Charlotte Rae ( born April 22, 1926 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as Charlotte Rae Lubotsky ) is an American actress and singer.
Life
Charlotte Rae was born as the daughter of Jewish parents of Russian ancestors in Milwaukee. Her mother Esther Ottenstein and her father Meyer Lubotsky had two more daughters. The oldest, Beverly († 1998), was an opera singer, the youngest, Mimi, is a musician and composer. Even Charlotte was brought early into contact with music.
After her high school graduation at the Shorewood High School in Wisconsin, she studied at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, but the study stopped. Among her fellow students included, among other things, future stars like Paul Lynde, Charlton Heston, Martha Hyer, Patricia Neal and Agnes Nixon.
Charlotte Rae was married to the composer John Strauss, with whom she has two children. The couple divorced in 1976.
Career
Rae began her acting career in the theater. They played, among other things one of the main roles in Pippin at the New Jersey Paper Mill Playhouse. They also played the Mammy Yokum in the Broadway musical Li'l Abner.
For her performance in The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens novel, she was nominated as Best Supporting Actress in 1966 for a Tony Award. Three years later, she was nominated for the same award in the category Best Actress for Morning, Noon, and Night.
In 1978, she played the matchmaker Bessie in the rotated by Emmy Award winner Mel Stuart disaster film fire trap.
A wide audience Rae is best known in the sitcom The Facts of Life. She embodied the Edna Ann Garrett ( called Mrs. Garrett or Mrs. G) from 1979 on the side of Mindy Cohn, Nancy McKeon and George Clooney. After eight seasons, she left the series and Rae's former fellow student Cloris Leachman took over as Mrs. Garrett's sister Ann Berverly the lead role.