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Ellen Albertini Dow

Highest Rated: 75% Wedding Crashers (2005)

Lowest Rated: 10% Frank the Bastard (2013)

Birthday: Nov 16, 1913

Birthplace: Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, USA

When audiences saw the trailer for the romantic comedy film "The Wedding Singer" (1998), many took note of the petite elderly woman performing "Rapper's Delight" and asked "Who is she?" The answer is Ellen Albertini Dow, a veteran of NYC's Yiddish theater and a former drama teacher in L.A. Although coy about her age, Dow has been playing feisty old women since she resumed her acting career in the mid-1980s with a chilling turn as a mass murderer on an episode of "The Twilight Zone" (CBS, 1985). Since then, she played small roles in numerous TV shows (e.g., "Family Matters," "The Golden Girls," "Murphy Brown") and a handful of films ("Tough Guys" 1986; "Sister Act" 1992). Dow offered a memorable guest turn on a 1995 episode of "Seinfeld" as J Peterman's elderly mother. But it was her performance as a woman celebrating her 50th wedding anniversary who surprises her guests with a hip-hop number that made people take notice. Director Frank Coraci had cast Dow primarily on the strength of her rendition of the 1959 classic "Til There Was You" which she also performed in the film. Audiences were primed for her appearance as a cocaine-snorting oldster in the disco-flavored "54" (also 1998).

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Highest-Rated Movies

75% 70% Wedding Crashers Watchlist 72% 80% The Wedding Singer Watchlist 57% 65% Road Trip Watchlist
32% 49% Fat Girls
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23% 52% Ready to Rumble
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15% 31% 54
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10% 57% Frank the Bastard
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Halfway Decent
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70% She Wants Me
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66% Annie's Point
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Filmography

Movies TV Shows
Frank the Bastard 10% 57% 2013 Dora Actor She Wants Me 70% 2012 Grandma Elma Actor The Invited 22% 2010 Natalie Shaw Actor Fat Girls 32% 49% 2006 Mildred Actor Annie's Point 66% 2005 Louise Tette Actor Halfway Decent 2005 Mrs. Kahn Actor Wedding Crashers 75% 70% 2005 Grandma Mary Actor Road Trip 57% 65% 2000 Grandma Manilow Actor Ready to Rumble 23% 52% 2000 Mrs. MacKenzie Actor 54 15% 31% 1998 Disco Dottie Actor The Wedding Singer 72% 80% 1998 Rosie Actor
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