Ellen Albertini Dow

The Retiree Who Decided to Become an Actress

Ellen Albertini Dow made her film debut at age seventy-two. Before that, she spent decades teaching theater and directing at Pierce College in Los Angeles. She sought neither fame nor the spotlight of major productions, because her life was already full of teaching and academic stage work.

She was born in 1913 in Pennsylvania and moved to New York City to study dance and theater. There, she worked with figures of the stature of Martha Graham. But her most unusual training took place in Paris. She studied mime with Marcel Marceau and Jacques Lecoq at a time when that art demanded absolute physical control.

She was in no hurry to become famous.

In 1985, she landed her first credited role in the film American Drive-In. From there, she began appearing on TV series such as The Twilight Zone and Moonlighting. Casting directors were looking for an older woman with energy, and she fit the profile perfectly: a petite woman with an commanding voice.

The rap that broke the mold

Her mass recognition came in 1998. In the film The Wedding Singer, she played Rosie, an older woman who took singing lessons in exchange for meatballs. Her performance of Rapper's Delight by The Sugarhill Gang became the most memorable moment of the Adam Sandler film.

And the audience responded with laughter.

That scene was not designed to become a phenomenon, but Dow's naturalness in reciting the hip hop rhymes worked. The movie's soundtrack reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200 chart shortly after its release. Dow was not a caricature but an actress applying mime technique and rhythm to a musical genre that was foreign to her.

In 2005, she repeated a similar hit in Wedding Crashers. There, she played the grandmother Mary Cleary and delivered dialogue loaded with dark humor and political prejudice. Her ability to say outrageous things with a sweet smile kept her working steadily for two more decades.

Exceptional longevity

She appeared in series such as Seinfeld, Will & Grace, and New Girl. For the latter, she filmed her appearance in 2012 when she was nearly a centenarian. Her method was simple: she never forgot her roots in classical theater and the body control she learned in France.

Her husband, Eugene Dow, was her constant partner from the time they married in 1951. He founded the theater department where she taught for years. When Eugene died in 2004, she kept taking supporting roles in sitcoms and independent films without slowing down.

The industry considered her a safe bet for supporting roles.

Ellen Albertini Dow died on May 4, 2015, at a medical center in Los Angeles. She was 101 years old. The cause of death was a pulmonary complication after a brief hospital stay. Her last credited film was Frank the Bastard, released that same year.