Renee Taylor
A comic performer and writer with an unabashed New York accent and sensibility who has portrayed a wide range of common-folk Jewish women, Renee Taylor began her career in New York in the 1950s as a revue comedienne and writer. She first gained national attention as a semi-regular on "The Jack Paar Show." Taylor made her film debut for Jerry Lewis in "The Errand Boy" (1961), and in 1968 was Jack Klugman's wife in "The Detective" who tried to distract him from his concentration with the offer of food. In 1977, Taylor appeared on the syndicated "Fernwood Tonight," the offspring of "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," as a character who proclaimed herself to be the missing Mary Hartman. Since the roles she was offered often did not showcase her abilities, Taylor and husband Joseph Bologna began writing and starring in their own plays and independent feature films which they tirelessly promoted. They co-wrote and performed onstage in "Lovers and Other Strangers" (1968), which they later adapted (but did not star in) for the screen in 1970. In 1971, the duo made the feature "Made for Each Other," in which Taylor was Pandora, a talentless performer pursuing the reluctant Bologna as her last chance at happiness. Taylor's self-written characters were often women with low self-esteem who are desperately seek love yet who also believe themselves to be unattractive. The pair revived "Made for Each Other" with frequent screenings at their own expense. Taylor and Bologna also co-wrote "Acts of Love and Other Comedies," a 1972 special starring Marlo Thomas that earned them a writing Emmy. Taylor wrote and starred in the 1976 TV-movie "Woman of the Year." In 1995, Taylor co-wrote and co-directed "Love Is All There Is" which centers on two feuding families whose children fall in love. The film was shown out of competition at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. Taylor found herself on a hit series when she was cast in the recurring role of Fran Drescher's Flushing, Queens, mother in the CBS sitcom "The Nanny" (1994-99). Again, she played a blowzy, overbearing parent not dissimilar characters she created for herself. Riding on her increased popularity, Taylor co-wrote a stage play with Bologna called "Bermuda Avenue Triangle" (1995), that explored love and relationships in middle age. With Beatrice Arthur as the third star of the piece, the play played to enthusiastic crowds in Los Angeles. Taylor continued working steadily in small roles in both film and television, including recurring roles on the sitcoms "How I Met Your Mother" (CBS 2005-2014) and "Happily Divorced" (TV Land 2011-13), in which she was reunited with Drescher, and the animated comedy "Bob's Burgers" (Fox 2011- ). She also appeared in the Adam Sandler comedy "The Do Over" (2016) and director Ken Marino's "How To Be A Latin Lover" (2017).
Photos
Renee Taylor
Filmography
Movies
Credit | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
100% |
|
Bella! | Self | - | 2023 |
63% |
|
Tango Shalom |
Deborah Yehuda (Character), Executive Producer |
$102.7K | 2021 |
40% |
|
How to Be a Latin Lover | Peggy (Character) | $32.1M | 2017 |
9% |
|
The Do Over | Mrs. Kessler (Character) | - | 2016 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Zarra's Law | Gabriella Zarra (Character) | - | 2014 |
22% |
|
Tyler Perry's Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor | Ms. Waco Chapman (Character) | $52.0M | 2013 |
No Score Yet |
|
Boston Girls | Mrs. Palermo (Character) | - | 2010 |
No Score Yet |
|
Opposite Day | Martha Benson (Character) | - | 2009 |
68% |
|
Life During Wartime | Mona Jordan (Character) | $278.8K | 2009 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Rainbow Tribe | Ms. Crapple (Character) | - | 2008 |
No Score Yet |
|
Pandemic | Kathryn Hadorn (Character) | - | 2007 |
No Score Yet |
|
Kalamazoo? | Golda (Character) | - | 2006 |
62% |
|
Boynton Beach Club | Platinum Blond (Character) | $3.1M | 2005 |
48% |
|
Alfie | Lu Schnitman (Character) | $13.4M | 2004 |
31% | No Score Yet | Returning Mickey Stern | Jeannie (Character) | - | 2003 |
0% |
|
Gold Diggers | Betty Mundt (Character) | $403.2K | 2003 |
86% |
|
61* | Claire Ruth (Character) | - | 2001 |
78% |
|
A Match Made in Heaven | Isobel Slotkin (Character) | - | 1997 |
No Score Yet |
|
Love Is All There Is |
Mona (Character), Director |
$61.3K | 1996 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Forever | Charlotte (Character) | - | 1992 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Joke | Belle (Character) | - | 1992 |
7% |
|
All I Want for Christmas | Sylvia (Character) | $13.9M | 1991 |
29% |
|
Delirious | Arlene Sherwood (Character) | $4.7M | 1991 |
50% |
|
White Palace | Edith Baron (Character) | $16.9M | 1990 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | It Had to Be You |
Theda Blau (Character), Director |
- | 1989 |
40% |
|
Lovesick | Mrs. Mondragon (Character) | - | 1983 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Woman of the Year | Tess Harding (Character) | - | 1976 |
29% |
|
Last of the Red Hot Lovers | Jeanette (Character) | - | 1972 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Made for Each Other | Pandora (Character) | - | 1971 |
94% |
|
A New Leaf | Sally Hart (Character) | - | 1971 |
No Score Yet |
|
Jennifer on My Mind | Selma (Character) | - | 1971 |
100% |
|
Lovers and Other Strangers | Writer | - | 1970 |
91% |
|
The Producers | Eva Braun (Character) | $111.9K | 1968 |
33% |
|
A Fine Madness | Streetwalker (Character) | - | 1966 |
50% |
|
The Errand Boy | Miss Giles (Character) | - | 1961 |
TV
Credit | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet | 88% | Bob's Burgers |
Gloria (Guest Voice), Unknown (Guest Star) |
2011 2013 2019-2020 |
No Score Yet | 68% | Shake It Up! | Mrs. Locassio (Guest Star) | 2011-2012 |
84% | 85% | How I Met Your Mother | Mrs. Matsen (Guest Star) | 2009 2011-2012 |
No Score Yet | 63% | 2 Broke Girls | Hinda Fagel (Guest Star) | 2012 |
12% | 18% | Allen Gregory | Principal Gottlieb (Voice) | 2011 |
No Score Yet | 83% | Sonny With a Chance | Unknown (Guest Star) | 2010 |
No Score Yet | 77% | Victorious | Mammaw (Guest Star) | 2010 |
78% | 83% | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Maude Monaghan (Guest Star) | 2010 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Pandemic | Kathryn Hadorn (Character) | 2007 |
37% | No Score Yet | The Wedding Bells | Unknown (Guest Star) | 2007 |
93% | No Score Yet | Everwood | Unknown (Guest Star) | 2005 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Eve | Unknown (Guest Star) | 2004 |
No Score Yet | 72% | The Nanny |
Sylvia Fine (Character), Unknown (Guest Star) |
1993-1999 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Caroline in the City | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1996 |
86% | 88% | Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1996 |
75% | No Score Yet | The Single Guy | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1996 |
7% | No Score Yet | Daddy Dearest | Helen Mitchell (Character) | 1993 |
83% | No Score Yet | thirtysomething | Electra Rosenbloom (Guest Star) | 1990 |