Charlotte Rae, Actress Who Played Mrs. Garrett on 'Facts of Life,' Dies at 92 | THR News - video Dailymotion

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Charlotte Rae, who endeared herself to a generation of TV fans as the affable Mrs. Garrett on the long-running NBC sitcom ‘The Facts of Life,’ died Sunday at her home in Los Angeles, publicist Harlan Boll announced. She was 92.

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00:00Charlotte Rae, who stole the hearts of a generation of fans playing Mrs. Garrett on

00:03the long-running NBC sitcom The Facts of Life, died Sunday at her home in Los Angeles at the

00:08age of 92. Rae revealed in April 2017 she'd been diagnosed with bone cancer seven years

00:13after a pancreatic cancer diagnosis.

00:30Rae began playing the character of Edna Garrett in 1978 on NBC's Different Strokes and then

00:39went on to play her for seven seasons on the spin-off Facts of Life. In 1982 she received an

00:43Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.

00:47Debuting in 1979, Facts of Life revolved around a group of teenage girls attending a private

00:51New York boarding school. Guiding them through the trials and tribulations of adolescence was

00:56Edna Garrett, their no-nonsense-but-always-understanding house mother. Her reboot of the popular series

01:01is currently in the works at Sony. In a 1982 interview with the Spartanburg Herald, Rae reflected

01:07on the character that had made her a star.

01:09"'I want to bring in as much humanity as possible, as well as the humor,' she said.

01:13"'I've tried to make her a human being with dimensions. The way they write her now is with a great deal of

01:18sensitivity and understanding. But I don't want her to be poly-perfect, because she must have

01:23human failings and make mistakes.' Born Charlotte Rae Lubotsky in Milwaukee on April 22, 1926,

01:29she caught the acting bug early, performing with the Children's Theatre and acting on the radio.

01:33Rae made her Broadway debut in 1952 in the musical comedy Three Wishes for Jamie, then followed

01:38with a turn as Mrs. Peachum in the 1954 revival of The Three Penny Opera. In 1956 she created the

01:44role of Mammy Yoakam in the original Broadway production of Little Abner. Rae received the first of

01:48two Tony nominations in 1966 as Best Featured Actress in a musical for Pickwick. The second

01:54came in 1969 when she was nominated as a Best Actress in the play for Morning, Noon & Night.

01:59Rae also began her extensive television career in the 1950s with appearances on the United States

02:03Steel Hour and The Phil Silver Show. A role that put her on the map came in 1961 when she was cast

02:08as Sylvia Schnauzer in the NBC sitcom Car 54, Where Are You? Rae works steadily in television

02:14throughout the 1960s and 70s on such series as The Defenders, The Partridge Family, Macmillan

02:19and Wife, Love, American Style, All in the Family, Good Times and Barney Miller. She played

02:24Molly the male lady on Sesame Street and was a regular on The Rich Little Show. In 1975 she received

02:29an Emmy nomination for her performance in the telefilm Queen of the Stardust Ballroom. The

02:34actress was a favorite of legendary TV producer Norman Lear. The two had met in the 1950s when he was

02:39writing for the Colgate Comedy Hour. In 1978, Fred Silverman, then president of NBC, was working

02:44on a sitcom concept called 45 Minutes from Harlem about a wealthy white New York industrialist

02:49who becomes a foster parent to two orphaned African-American boys who were children of a

02:53former employee. The show was being fashioned for Maude co-star Conrad Bain and a newly

02:58discovered child actor Gary Coleman. Silverman wanted Lear to produce. To entice him, Silverman

03:02cast Rae as the household's wisecracking maid. The ploy worked and Lear's company Tandem Productions

03:07produced the show, which was renamed Different Strokes and became an instant hit. The popularity

03:12of Rae's Mrs. Garrett was undeniable and the producers designed an episode with an eye

03:16towards a spin-off. The season's last installment, The Girls' School, found Mrs. Garrett meeting

03:20and bonding with a group of youngsters at Eastlake School for Girls, a prestigious prep school

03:25that Kimberley was attending. NBC execs liked what they saw and ordered a series with The

03:29Facts of Life debuting the following August. By the show's seventh season, Rae felt that her

03:34character was getting stale and asked that her role be reduced. The producers decided to write

03:38her out entirely, marrying off Mrs. Garrett and sending her to Africa to work in the Peace Corps.

03:43Clois Leachman was introduced as Garrett's sister Beverly, who came in to take over the shop and watch

03:47over the girls. After leaving Facts of Life, Rae stayed busy with work on TV shows including

03:52101 Dalmatians, ER, The King of Queens, Murder, She Wrote, Sisters and Girl Meets World and such films as

03:58You Don't Miss with the Zohan, Lovesick Love and Ricky and the Flash. In 2015, Rae released her

04:03memoir, The Facts of My Life, written with her son Larry Strauss. It revealed her struggle to

04:07come to grips with her husband's bisexuality and her battle with alcoholism. In addition to her

04:11son Larry and his wife Eleanor, survivors include her sister Miriam and grandchildren Sean,

04:15Carly and Nora. Her other son Andrew died in 1999 of a heart attack. To read more on the life

04:21and career of Charlotte Rae, head to THR.com. For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Lyndsey Rodrigues.

Charlotte Rae, Actress Who Played Mrs. Garrett on 'Facts of Life,' Dies at 92 | THR News

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