Alice Drummond
Alice Drummond (born May 21, 1928 in Providence , Rhode Island , † November 30, 2016 in New York City , New York ; born Alice Ruyter ) was an American actress . Since the 1950s she has appeared in over 200 film, theater and television roles of all genres. Since the 1980s she has mainly been cast in the role of the eccentric elderly lady, who she embodied in films such as Ghostbusters - Die Geisterjäger (1984), To Wong Foo, thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995) or Faith Question (2008) .
biography
Education and theater career
Alice Drummond was born Alice Ruyter in Providence in 1928 (according to other sources, in Pawtucket in 1929 ). The daughter of an auto mechanic and a secretary grew up in Pawtucket. Even as a child, she was occasionally taken to theater performances in Boston by her mother . In the high school came Drummond in school plays at numerous leading roles and thereafter attended Pembroke College of Brown University in her hometown. There she was a member of the student association Phi Beta Kappa in her junior year . After graduating from college in 1950 and appearing in performances by the Brown's Sock theater company and the Buskin Drama Society , she moved to New York in the mid-1950s to pursue a serious career as an actress. However, for the next decade, Drummond struggled to get theater roles and was not invited to audition on off-Broadway productions. She then made a living doing a variety of office jobs and appeared in summer theater productions in the Midwest and Nantucket .
It wasn't until she was in her thirties that Drummond got off-Broadway roles. She received fabulous reviews for the part of Anna von Kleve in a production of Hermann Gressieker's play Royal Gambit . This was followed by other off-Broadway roles, but to the frustration of the actress only one main role in which she embodied the innocent-naive. From the late 1950s, Drummond also played supporting roles on New York's Broadway , where she made her debut in 1959 in a revival of the Aristophanes comedy Lysistrata . On Broadway, she appeared in classic plays such as Ingrid and Lady Northumberland in Peer Gynt and Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part II (both 1960), as well as contemporary works by Edward Albee ( The Ballad of the Sad Cafe , 1963/64; Malcolm , 1966 ).
One of her greatest hits was the comedy The Chinese and Dr. Fish (1970) opposite Joseph Bova and William Devane at the Ethel Barrymore Theater . The part of Mrs. Lee in the one-act act brought her in 1970 the first nomination for the Tony Award , the most important American theater award. Six years later, Drummond received a new nomination for her supporting role as Agnes in Arvin Brown's production of A Memory of Two Mondays at the Playhouse Theater . In the revival of a play by Arthur Miller , which together with the Tennessee Williams -Stück 27 Wagons Full of Cotton was performed, included the young actor John Lithgow and Meryl Streep her stage partner. In the early 1990s, the actress was remembered as the bumbling and backache-plagued Aunt Ruth in Scott McPherson's multi-award-winning black humor play Marvin's Room (1991/92). To Drummond's disappointment, however, she was replaced by Gwen Verdon in the Oscar- nominated film adaptation of the off-Broadway play of the same name .
Film career
In parallel to her work at the theater, Drummond has appeared in more than 60 film and television productions since the mid-1960s. She made her debut playing the role of sister Jackson in some episodes of the popular supernatural television series Dark Shadows on American television. Drummond made her first feature film appearance with an extra role in Carl Reiner's jet-black comedy Wo is' Papa? (1970). She then appeared regularly in American feature film productions of all genres, including Peter Yates ' thriller The Eyewitness (1981) and The House on Caroll Street (1988), George Roy Hill's comedy Funny Farm or Sidney Lumet's drama Escape into the Unknown (both 1988). Although Drummond acted in these productions alongside well-known fellow actors such as Chevy Chase , Jeff Daniels , William Hurt , Kelly McGillis , River Phoenix or Sigourney Weaver , she was almost always subscribed to insignificant supporting roles or extras in which she regularly gave a face to eccentric elderly women ("Even when I was on the Brown, I played little old ladies."). This encouraged rheumatoid arthritis in later years , which slowed her gait and also left marks on her hands.
Drummond's best-known film roles include the frightened librarian in the opening sequence of Ivan Reitman's Ghostbusters (1984), the patient suffering from sleeping sickness in Penny Marshall's Oscar- nominated drama Time of Awakening (1990), the Alzheimer's-sick villager in Robert Bentons Nobody's Fool - Irresistible in the long run (1994) or the slowly going blind Catholic nun Veronica in John Patrick Shanley's question of faith (2008). From the late 1990s, Drummond received major roles in independent films, including that of Ally Sheedy's grandmother in Adrienne Shelly's I'll Take You There (1999), or Dottie's grandmother in Pieces of April - A Day with April Burns (2003) or the elderly hospital patient in Tom Hines' award-winning drama Chronic Town (2008), for which she received critical acclaim. Drummond also frequently made guest appearances in American television series such as Kate & Allie (1988), Law & Order (1994), Cosby (1996) and Boston Legal (2005).
From 1951 until the divorce in 1975, the actress was married to Paul Drummond, whose name she adopted. She lived in Manhattan with her significant other, a retired teacher .
Plays (selection)
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Broadway roles
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Off Broadway roles
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Filmography (selection)
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Awards
- 1970: Tony nomination for The Chinese and Dr. Fish ( Best Supporting Actress )
- 1976: Nomination for the Drama Desk Award for A Memory of Two Mondays / 27 Wagons Full of Cotton (Best Supporting Actress)
Web links
- Nobody's Fool - Portrait in Brown Alumni Magazine
- Alice Drummond in the All Movie Guide (English) (English)
- Alice Drummond in the Internet Broadway Database (English)
- Alice Drummond in the Internet Off-Broadway Database
- Alice Drummond in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Veteran character actress Alice Drummond dies at 88
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Foderaro, Lisa W .: Nobody's Fool at brownalumnimagazine.com (accessed on August 2, 2009)
- ↑ a b biography in the All Movie Guide (English; accessed on August 2, 2009)
- ↑ Profile in the Internet Movie Database (English; accessed on August 2, 2009)
- ↑ a b Profile at filmreference.com (English; accessed on August 2, 2009)
- ^ Herrmann, Lacy: Reunion Report: Class of 1950 at brownalumnimagazine.com (accessed on August 2, 2009)
- ^ Koehler, Robert: Chronic Town . In: Variety , April 14, 2008 - April 20, 2008, p. 41
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Drummond, Alice |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Ruyter, Alice; Ruyter Drummond, Alice |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | US-american actress |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 21, 1928 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Providence , Rhode Island |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 30, 2016 |
| Place of death | New York City , New York |