Ellen Albertini Dow, the rapping grandmother from The Wedding Singer, dies at 101
Ellen Albertini Dow, the actress best known for stealing the show in The Wedding Singer when she performed "Rapper's Delight," died Monday. She was 101.
Dow appeared on numerous television shows, including Seinfeld, New Girl, The Golden Girls, and Six Feet Under, as well as major movies Sister Act, Patch Adams, and 54. Before landing onscreen roles, Dow was a dancer, theater actress, comedian, and mime who trained with Marcel Marceau in Paris. Once she moved to Los Angeles, she taught in the drama department of Pierce College in the San Fernando Valley, where she worked alongside her husband, Eugene Dow. She retired in 1985, and landed her first film role later that year. —Catherine Garcia
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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