Page 31 - ARUBA TODAY

PEOPLE & ARTS A31
Saturday 30 December 2017

Actress Rose Marie of ‘Dick Van Dyke Show’ fame dies at 94

By LYNN ELBER writing, inspired casting the Van Dyke cast, but had In this April 1, 2002, file photo, actress and comedian Rose
AP Television Writer and insightful view of the been an entertainer for Marie talks to the press as she arrives for a ceremony honoring
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Rose inner workings of the then- more than 30 years. comedian Milton Berle at Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary
Marie chafed at being new medium of television. She was born Rose Marie in Los Angeles.
a supporting player in Van Dyke starred as Rob Mazetta of Italian-Polish
the shadow of Mary Tyler Petrie, head writer for a hit parentage in New York City Associated Press
Moore’s fetching suburban comedy-variety show and on Aug. 15, 1923. When she
housewife on “The Dick Moore, in her first major was 3, her mother entered and appeared on most rious gangsters.
Van Dyke Show.” role, played his wife Laura. her in an amateur talent of the vaudeville circuits “My father worked as an
But it was as feisty comedy The blonde, raspy-voiced contest in Atlantic City as until vaudeville’s demise. arsonist for Al Capone,”
writer Sally Rogers that Ma- Rose Marie teamed with Baby Rose Marie. Among her friends was one Rose Marie told People
rie stretched the narrow her pal Morey Amsterdam “My mother was terrified,” of the country’s most noto- magazine in 2016. q
confines of how women as assistant writers. she recalled in a 1992 in-
were portrayed on TV in “The Dick Van Dyke Show” terview with The Associ-
the mid-20th century. Sally not only was an ideal vehi- ated Press. “But I went out
was an independent sin- cle for Rose Marie’s comic and sang ‘What Can I Say,
gle woman who handled gifts, but was a showcase Dear, After I Say I’m Sorry?’
her job as adroitly as her for her singing, with Sally and won the contest.”
male colleagues and who belting out “Come Rain or She began singing on radio
dated but refused to pine Come Shine” and other old and was a hit on “The Rudy
away for romance. favorites during nightclub Vallee Hour.” NBC gave her
Rose Marie, who died and party scenes. a seven-year contract and
Thursday at 94, was proud The actress had con- her own show, 15 minutes
to have created a woman flicts with Reiner, resent- on Sunday. Her powerful
defined by her work, a rare ing that Moore was given voice gave rise to rumors.
sitcom character at the more prominence than “Stories went around that
time who wasn’t “a wife, her on the show. Reiner, I was really a 45-year-old
mother, or housekeeper,” speaking in “Wait for Your midget,” she remarked in
she tweeted in 2017. Laugh,” bluntly pushed 1992. “So they sent me on
It represented one mile- back. “I used real strong a year-round personal ap-
stone in an extraordinary language,” he recalled. “I pearance tour of theaters
acting and singing career said, ‘You both have beau- across the country to prove
that started when she was tiful legs. They wanna look that I was a child.”
a toddler, stretched over at her legs.’” Rose Marie sang in a se-
nearly a century and in- Nominated three times for ries of movie shorts includ-
cluded success in theater, Emmys, Rose Marie had yet ing “Baby Rose Marie, the
radio, nightclubs, movies to turn 40 when she joined Child Wonder” in 1929
and TV.
“There’s never been a
more engaging & multi-
talented performer .... &
always had audiences
clamoring for more!!” Carl
Reiner, creator of “The Dick
Van Dyke Show,” posted
Thursday on Twitter.
Rose Marie had been rest-
ing in bed at her Los An-
geles-area home when a
caretaker found she had
stopped breathing, said
family spokesman Harlan
Boll. The cause of death
wasn’t immediately dis-
closed. “Heaven just got
a whole lot funnier” read
the tribute posted atop a
photo of Rose Marie on her
website. The subject of the
2017 documentary “Wait
for Your Laugh,” Rose Marie
often claimed she had the
longest career in entertain-
ment history. It spanned
some 90 years, with co-
stars ranging from W.C.
Fields (in the 1933 movie
“International House”) to
Garfield the cat.
The highlight for many was
“The Dick Van Dyke Show,”
the 1961-66 sitcom widely
loved for its sophisticated