Ellen Albertini Dow, known for performing “Rapper’s Delight” in the 1998 film The Wedding Singer, died Monday, as reported by Deadline. She was 101.
Born in Pennsylvania in 1913, she studied dance and piano as a child before moving to New York, where she pursued acting. In addition to performing comedy in the Borscht Belt and directing stage productions, she also worked with mimes Marcel Marceau and Jacques LeCog in Paris. She later moved to California, teaching drama at Los Angeles City College and Pierce College, where her husband Eugene Dow founded the theater program.
She landed her first on-screen credit in the 1980s when she was in her 70s, and she went on to act in films like Patch Adams, Sister Act, and Wedding Crashers. Perhaps best known for her role in The Wedding Singer, her performance of “Rapper’s Delight” appeared on the film’s soundtrack, which went double platinum and made the Billboard Top 5.
She also appeared in a number of television series, including The Twilight Zone, The Golden Girls, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Seinfeld and ER. One of her most recent roles was in 2013, when she guest starred on an episode of New Girl.
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