By Penny Landau****Although she was best known for her work on the sitcom “The Facts of Life,” Charlotte Rae had a six-decade career as a singer, Broadway performer and television actress, dating back to the 1940s. She died at age 92 on Sunday, August 5 in Los Angeles from bone cancer, which she publicly revealed in 2017. Rae was born Charlotte Rae Lubotsky on April 22, 1926, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Rae’s mother was a childhood friend of future Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir and was active in the early Zionist movement. Her father ran a successful appliance business. She began singing as a child and in high school performed on a radio show, continuing to pursue music and acting at Northwestern University. She performed in summer stock productions and found work on television and radio programs in Chicago.
Rae moved to New York City in 1948, created a nightclub act and performed at the Village Vanguard and the Blue Angel. Rae was skilled as both singer and comedienne. She made her Broadway debut in 1952 in the musical Three Wishes for Jamie, starred as Mrs. Peachum with Lotte Lenya, Bea Arthur and John Astin in Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera in 1954 and originated the role of Mammy Yokum in the musical Lil’ Abner in 1956. In this period, Rae recorded her only solo album, Songs I Taught My Mother, which featured several songs written by Sheldon Harnick, Vernon Duke, Rodgers & Hart, Cole Porter and Marc Blitzstein and was released by Vanguard Records. She also recorded Ben Bagley’s The Littlest Revue with Joel Grey and Tammy Grimes and Rodgers & Hart Revisited with Dorothy Loudon and Arthur Siegel.
In the 1950’s Rae also began working in television, with guest spots on the “United States Steel Hour,” “The Phil Silvers Show” and “Play of the Week,” to name a few, eventually becoming a regular on “Car 54, Where Are You?” When that job ended, she was back on Broadway in The Beauty Part, with Alice Ghostley and Bert Lahr. Rae earned her first Tony Award nomination for her work on the original musical Pickwick in 1965 and another Tony nomination in 1969 for her role in Morning, Noon and Night.
Rae first appeared as Edna Garrett on “Diff’rent Strokes” in the 1970’s and its spin-off, “The Facts of Life,” which made her a star. She played Mrs. Garrett for nine seasons and handed the mentor role to Cloris Leachman, who played Edna’s sister Beverly. Rae remained active with guest appearances on television, the stage and in film. Who could ever forget her table-top dance with Treat Williams in the film of Hair in 1979! In 2007, she made her San Francisco cabaret debut at The Plush Room at the ripe old age of 81. Her last role was in 2015, in the film Ricki and the Flash.
In 2011, I was honored to accompany the cast of “The Fact’s of Life” to the TV Land Awards as they received the Pop Culture Award. I was there with my client, Geri Jewell, as well as the “girls from Eastland,” Cloris Leachman and one of my favorite people, Charlotte Rae. It was a great evening and as I sat with Charlotte’s granddaughter, she remarked, “Isn’t that nice the way Nancy (McKeon) has her arms around Cloris?” I leaned over to her and said, “That’s not love. She has her in a Vulcan death grip, because Cloris will take the mic and make it all about her. This is your grandmother’s night.” And it was.
Sleep with the angels, sweet Charlotte. May her life be for a blessing.
To see Charlotte and the girls from “Facts…” at the TV Land Awards, click here
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