Alice Drummond

The Librarian Who Saw the Ghost

In 1984, a ghost gave her the scare of her life at the New York Public Library. The gray-haired, nervous-eyed woman who opens Ghostbusters was Alice Drummond.

And that was just one of many moments when her supporting presence outshone the headliners.

Born in Rhode Island in 1928, she realized early on that her place was on stage. In 1970, she earned a Tony Award nomination for her work in the play The Chinese and Dr. Fish. But film came knocking hard once she was already past fifty.

She never chased fame or top billing, because she preferred the grind of hard work on set.

She specialized in women who seemed fragile but hid a sharp, cutting lucidity. Casting directors in the 1980s knew that Drummond brought a authenticity that acting schools couldn't teach.

The Supporting Player Everyone Knew

In 1990, she played nurse Lucy in Awakenings alongside Robin Williams. Her ability to convey humanity with barely any dialogue made her a fixture in productions that aimed for a raw, gritty realism.

But perhaps her most memorable moment for mainstream audiences came in 1994 with Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.

Playing Ray Finkle's mother required a comic timing she handled with surgical precision. That cookie scene still works decades later thanks to her complete seriousness in the face of the absurd Jim Carrey.

She never needed to raise her voice to steal a scene.

A Craft Carried to the End

She kept working steadily well into her eighties. In 2008, she appeared in Doubt and proved she still had what it took in powerful dramas. She never cared about the size of the role as long as the character had an edge to sink her teeth into.

In 2010, she made her final appearance on the big screen in Cat's Eye.

She died in New York in 2016 from complications after a fall at her home. She was 88 years old and left behind 89 credits in film and television. The actors' union recorded her death on November 30 of that year.