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 has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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