Ellen Albertini Dow

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Ellen Rose Albertini Dow (born November 16, 1913 in Mount Carmel , Northumberland County , Pennsylvania as Ellen Rose Albertini , † May 4, 2015 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American film and stage actress .

Life

Ellen Albertini was born in Pennsylvania as the seventh and youngest child of Italian immigrants. Her father made a living as a car dealer, her mother was a housewife. At the age of five she received piano and dance lessons. After completing compulsory schooling, she earned her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts from Cornell University in Ithaca near New York . After moving to New York City, she studied acting and choreography with the most famous dancers of her time, including the German dancers Uta Hagen and Hanya Holm . During a study trip to Paris , she met Marcel Marceau and Jacques Lecoq .

Albertini gained her first experience as a stage actress and worked in numerous theaters in Massachusetts , Pennsylvania , South Carolina and New York, where she worked as a choreographer at the renowned Carnegie Hall . She also founded the Albertini Mime Players , a theater company for young actors, which she directed herself for almost 20 years. For 30 years she worked as a dancer, theater actress and choreographer.

Albertini Dow came into contact with the medium of film and television relatively late. She took her first role in front of the camera in 1985 at the age of 72, as a supporting actress in the comedy American Drive-In . She then stood in front of the camera for numerous well-known TV series and feature films, including 1992 in Sister Act - A Heavenly Career or 1998 as a rapping grandmother in A Wedding to Fall in Love . In the 2005 comedy The Wedding Crashers , Dow played a grandmother shooting around with a rifle. She became known to a younger audience through her guest appearances on the television series Ned's Ultimate School Madness and Hannah Montana . She had her last film role in 2013 at the age of 100.

In 1950 she married the assistant director Eugene Dow, whose last name she added to her family name. Ellen Albertini Dow and Eugene Dow were married for almost 55 years; he died in October 2004. She died on May 4, 2015 in Los Angeles at the age of 101.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Daniel E. Slotnik: Ellen Albertini Dow, Who Played Rapping Granny in 'The Wedding Singer,' Dies at 101. In: The New York Times, May 5, 2015 (accessed May 6, 2015).
personal data
SURNAME Albertini Dow, Ellen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Albertini, Ellen Rose (maiden name); Albertini Dow, Ellen Rose (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film and stage actress
DATE OF BIRTH November 16, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Mount Carmel , Northumberland County , Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH May 4, 2015
Place of death Los Angeles , California , United States