Charlotte Rae Lubotsky, known professionally as: Charlotte Rae (born April 22, 1926) is an American prolific 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.
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, a pianist, writer, and composer, and Beverly, an opera singer), and graduated from Shorewood High School in 1944.[3] At the same high school where Charlotte attended, she had a best friend simply called "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, not that far from where she was born. In a 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 such as Morton DaCosta, who was the director of The Music Man on Broadway. She said that she had great teachers at her high school, which also had a beautiful campus. Rae attended but did not complete her studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where she met Cloris Leachman, who would not become best friends for life, but roommates, who in turn replaced Rae on The Facts of Life, for the last 2 seasons.[4] She also did some stock before she became an actress. At the same college, she also met several unknown stars and producers such as: Agnes Nixon, Charlton Heston, Paul Lynde, and songwriter, Sheldon Harnick. Rae sang to honour Harnick at a benefit, years after her days in college. Each summer, while attending college, she also appeared its annual student theatrical extravaganza, the Waa-Mu Show. She also did some stock before she became an actress.
When a radio personality told her that her last name wouldn't do, she dropped it, becoming simply Charlotte Rae. She moved to New York City in 1948, where she performed a lot of stage and theater, and lived there until 1974, moving to Los Angeles. Before she was a successful actress, around the same time she began residing in New York, Charlotte also worked at various nightclubs, where they were booming. In addition to working at the Village Vanguard, where she worked with up-and-coming talents such as singer Richard Dyer-Bennett, she also worked at the posh Blue Angel, home to budding talents such as: Barbra Streisand, Mike Nichols and his ex-partner Elaine May. She was absolutely perfect in comedy at the clubs, all of which led her to be a comedienne.[5]
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.
Rae received 2 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').
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, among many others. She also guest-starred on Norman Lear's All in the Family and Good Times.
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.[5]
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 housemother 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 Eastland, the school attended by Kimberly (played by the late Dana Plato). In July 1979, Rae proposed the idea for the new spinoff to the heads of NBC. They greenlighted the show, and thus The Facts of Life was born. 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, autism, cerebral palsy, dating, and marriage. The show wasn't an immediate hit, but 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 storylines focused more on the girls, in lieu of Mrs. Garrett. At the beginning of the eighth season, Rae left the show despite all the fame she had gained, owing to a health problem. (She later returned to the stage, displeasing the show's producers.) At the beginning of the 1986-1987 season, her character was written out as having gotten remarried and joined the Peace Corps. 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.
Also starring on Facts were a lot of unfamiliar actresses/actors who were only on the first season before being fired, including 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 spinoff 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 Mindy Cohn at Westlake School in Los Angeles, California and suggested that she take the role of smart Natalie Green. The second season introduced another unfamiliar star, Nancy McKeon as the tomboy Jo, who stayed on for the entire run. During the show's seventh season, two new stars, George Clooney and Mackenzie Astin, joined the cast. During the show's first season, the entire cast didn't get along with Rae, by the time the second season was renewed after 5 actors were fired, when Nancy was brought in as the only replacement girl, the entire cast actually had a lot of fun, esp. Cohn.
During the show's eight season run, while Rae was playing her role for 7 of 9 seasons, she was nominated only once for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1982, but didn't win.
Mindy Cohn said in a 2011 interview with E! Online as to how her TV housemother/mentor and confidant is celebrating really big, after her run as Mrs. Garrett was, "More than anything else, my heart just is open to celebrating Charlotte Rae, and the amazing career that she has had, which gratefully included 9 years of 'The Facts of Life.'" This was a month after she was interviewed on BlogTalkRadio’s, The Neverhood Show with Ethan Tudor W., about her first meeting with Charlotte in a what would be a "well-written" sitcom, "I just had my Bar Mitzvah, when I was 13, I had no desire to be an actress that wasn't kind of my career treachery; it was really a chance to go talk to the lady that I recognized from Diff'rent Strokes, Mrs. Garrett [Charlotte Rae]. Charlotte discovered me and we have been great friends ever since." Cohn also said in a 2010 interview with DJ Nocturna, when she was approached by producer Norman Lear and upcoming series' lead, Charlotte Rae, about the reservations of playing the character after meeting her in an all-girls private school, "I was discovered by Charlotte Rae and the producer at the time, Norman Lear, came to the school that I was attending, Westlake School For Girls, to try and authenticate the scripts and try to get a feel of what it was like to be - in an all-girls school, and Charlotte was really wanted to make sure that 'Mrs. Garrett,' there was a reason for 'Mrs. Garrett' to leave 'Diff'rent Strokes,' which was the show she started on, and go to this all-girls school, for a reason. So, they were trying to figure that out, so I was one of the students they talked to and she and I hit it off ... I guess, extremely well, as a 13-year-old. I don't really know what that means to hit it off with someone," Mindy also said about the character Charlotte once created for Mindy upon her (Charlotte's) days in high school, "And literally, the next day, I got asked into the headmasters' office, and said, 'Charlotte Rae is going to write a part for you in her new show.' The character's name is: Natalie, because that was Charlotte Rae's best friend name, when she was in high school. That's how we got her name. I don't know where Green came from, somebody was bored, somebody was uninspired. Something oh-good, I want something fantastic. She (Charlotte) was a wonderful lady!" Mindy said about being hired to playing Natalie, “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?’” The last thing she responded as to why Charlotte Rae really wanting to leave the show was, "One of the reasons she left was because this show is really started to focused on the girls, the pull of the show started to be different of her, she sorta felt like ‘I’m done!’" Rae and Cohn are currently close friends with the other cast. Beverly Ann's (Charlotte's real-life sister, who named Cloris Leachman's character on The Facts of Life, after her) death in 1998, obviously drew the relationship real closer between Rae, Cohn, amongst other cast members, this was years before John's (Charlotte's real-life ex-husband) death in 2011, which also drew the relationship real-closer, a second time. 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 (esp. Cohn) were reunited - a second time, to attend the TV Land Awards, where the show was Nominated and won the Award for Pop Culture Icon. That same day, both Nancy McKeon & Kim Fields (who played Jo & Tootie respectively) also gave out a speech in honor of her 85th Birthday. The cast was did the same on ABC's Good Morning America, where at the end of the segment, reporter, Cynthia McFadden wished Charlotte a very Happy 85th Birthday. In honor of her big birthday, the entire cast sang the show's theme song.
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 Christine 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.
On January 31st, 2011, she starred as the woman who made mysterious beaded bracelets on "Pretty Little Liars" episode 1.15.
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. In 2011, ex-husband, John Strauss, had died after a long battle of Parkinson's Disease.[6]
In 1982, Rae went to the hospital for the doctors to place a pacemaker in her heart.
In 2009, Rae was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, a disease that ran in her family. All of her relatives, especially her mother had died from the same disease, when fortunately for Rae, the prognosis was good, she had no flu-symptoms, her cancer was detected early and was needed to be contained, therefore, she became cancer-free, in 2011.[7]
Hobbies
Her hobbies also included: golfing, dancing, dining, spending time with her family, watching movies, taking care of people (especially her son) with disabilities and sewing. She also did a lot of singing, esp. to the theme song on the 1st season of The Facts of Life.
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 Stewart's daughter, Kelly Stewart. Carroll Baker was also supposed to have attended the tribute, but if she did, she is nowhere to be found in the Academy's photos.
Rae received 2 Tony Award nominations during her Broadway career. The first in 1966 for Best Featured Actress in a Musical in 'Pickwick'. The second came in 1969 for Best Actress in a play for 'Morning, Noon and Night'. She also received two Emmy Nominations for her work on TV. The first in 1975 for Best Supporting Actress in a TV movie for he performance in 'The Queen of the Stardust Ballroom'. She also received a nomination for her work on The Facts of Life, Best Actress in a Comedy Series, in 1982.
On April 19, 2011, Rae & the rest of her surviving Facts of Life cast (Mindy Cohn, Lisa Whelchel and Kim Fields) had won the TV Land Award where The Facts of Life was nominated for Pop Culture Icon, this was done before the entire cast threw Rae an 85th Birthday Party.
Personal Quotes
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: TVGuide.com)
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: http://home.hiwaay.net//)
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: TV Guide.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 of 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: TV Guide.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: TV Guide.com)
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: TVGuide.com)
Charlotte who said in 2006: "I wanted to be a serious actress. I am a serious actress. I've done lots of good stuff." (Source: http://www.theage.com.au//)
Charlotte who said in 1982 when she headed to New York, when she dropped her last name: "My father was heartbroken when I didn't use Lubotsky. Today actors keep their real names and I could use it." (Source: Youngstown Vindicator.com)
Charlotte who said in 1985 about being a serious actress, rather than being a funny comedienne: "A good actress should be able to play comedy as well as drama. I was doing a lot of drama until I took the comedy role in the series Car 54, Where Are You?, and I've been tagged as a comedian ever since." (Source: Beaver County Times.com)
Charlotte about The Facts of Life along with her Edna Garrett character: "I want to bring in as much humanity as possible, as well as the humor. I've tried to make her a human being with dimensions. The way they write her now is with a great deal of sensitivity and understanding. But I don't want her to be Polly Perfect, because she must have human failings and make mistakes. She's also a surrogate mother to the girls. I told them I wanted to be firm with the girls because I know it's important. Parents must lay down ground rules for their children to help them to grow up and to learn responsibility for their actions. They must learn to stand on their own two feet." (Source: Youngstown Vindicator.com)
Charlotte as to how she was hired by Norman Lear to play Edna Garrett: "I got involved with Diff'rent Strokes, because of Norman Lear. When I was in New York [originally], I did a lot of things and one of the things was The Colgate Comedy Hour, and he was one of the producers and writers of it. So, when I came out to California [after many years in New York with my family], they were very, very wonderful, because I would do little guest shots, guest appearances on all of his sitcoms, and then I was doing something called 'The Eddie Capra Murder Mysteries,' and I was at Universal in costume, and they called and asked me to come meet with the producers, and everything. I was wearing an old schweppy thing that I wore for the character for the murder mysteries, and I sat down and I expected to read. They didn't have me read, we just talked, and they asked me about how I felt this housekeeper should be with these two boys and with Mr. Drummond, and I told him the way I felt, and the next thing I knew I had the part." (Source: Different StrokesDVD.com)
Charlotte: "Joan Collins is a bitch! There's no doubt about it, everyone says she an extremely difficult person." (Source: TheInsider.com)
Charlotte on the death of Gary Coleman: "Coleman was filled with joy which he spread around to millions of people all over the world." (Source: http://www.kwtx.com//)
Charlotte who said in 1988: "My former husband wanted to move to California. He is a music editor and music coordinator. He coordinated the music for the film version of Amadeus. So many people have moved there from New York, and I felt at home." (Source: Milwaukee Journal.com)
Charlotte who said in 1989: "I'm in a rage, if you really want to know about it." (Source: TheDailyNews.com)
Charlotte: “For the first ten years of my life I lived at 1232 N. 12th St. It's a freeway now. My father owned a tire store. There were three girls in my family, and I was the middle one. All three of us were very talented. My older sister, Beverly, settled in Milwaukee and she died a few years ago. She was an opera singer who sang with the symphony and a group called the Saturday Arts' Club. My younger sister, Mimi, is an accomplished musician and composer. She wrote a children's album that I recorded for her, called "Wally Koala" and she's written a couple of musicals as well.” (Source: OnlineMilwaukee.com)
Charlotte who said of Gary Coleman's death in 2010: "I said a prayer for him this morning after hearing about his condition. Gary was so loving, so charming. He was the big star of the show." (Source: Blog.al.com)
Charlotte on her popularity while playing the fifty-something Edna Garrett on The Facts of Life: "There have been lots of changes in my life these past few months. Not only am I thinner, but Mrs. Garrett is, too. It'll be a fun season." (Source: Telegraph.com)
Charlotte who said in 1980 about an episode which she wasn't inspired to lose weight: "Yes, in that show, I was on a crash diet. But I had plans long before that to sensibly lose weight. I've dropped from a size 14 dress to a svelte 8; it's terrific." (Source: The Telegraph.com)
Charlotte who responded in 1984 as to why she enjoys series television: "In TV, you have to compromise. But when strangers put their arms around you and tell you how much they love you it somehow makes it all worthwhile." (Source: http://home.hiwaay.net)
Charlotte who said of Joan Collins: “You want to know what happened? They played it for her and she said, 'Who's that Old Cow?' And I really felt badly because I've had a long siege of the flu, and it was my first night out. I did write a note to her and had him slip it under her dressing room door and I said, 'I apologized, you were excellent in the play, signed, sincerely, 'The Old Cow.'” (Source: An interview with Michael Stever)
Charlotte: “I have to keep reminding people that I am not Mrs. Garrett. Mrs. Garrett is more together. She is much more organized. Not I ...” (Source: http://home.hiwaay.net)
Charlotte who said of Mindy Cohn: “I kept going back to this little girl, Mindy Cohn, cause she was so adorable and she had that adorable little voice, and I asked her a question, and she go, 'Well, I don't know, it seems to me that,' and she's so cute and funny and I said, 'She'd be a great compliment to the other girls.'” (Source: Cast Confessions @ A&Ebiography.com)
Charlotte on her departure of The Facts of Life, at the end of the seventh season: “They wanted me to stay a couple more years, they offered me millions.” (Source: Cast Confessions @ A&Ebiography.com)
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