Frances Bay ("Happy Days," "Seinfeld," "Happy Gilmore") Has Died

Los Angeles Times Obituary...

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Posted on Fri, Sep. 16, 2011 04:17 PM

Frances Bay, actress in 'Happy Gilmore,' 'Seinfeld,' dies at 92
By MYRNA OLIVER
Los Angeles Times

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Frances Bay, the sweet, gentle housewife who became a successful actress in middle age, appearing in more than 50 motion pictures and 100 television shows including roles as the "marble rye lady" on "Seinfeld" and the grandmother in Adam Sandler's "Happy Gilmore," has died. She was 92.

Bay, also popular as a stage actress in local theaters, died Thursday at Providence Tarzana Medical Center in the San Fernando Valley, said her cousin Marly Zaslov of Vancouver, British Columbia. Bay had been ill with various infections.

The actress, whose right leg was amputated below the knee after she was struck by a car in 2002, had been active until recently, appearing regularly as Aunt Ginny in the ABC sitcom "The Middle."

Born in Mannville, Alberta, on Jan. 23, 1919, the shy, diminutive Bay began acting in Winnipeg, Manitoba - voicing princesses on radio shows - and then in Toronto.

"I always wanted to be an actress," she told the Los Angeles Times in 1986 when she was appearing as the bitter, eccentric mother in John Guare's play "Bosoms and Neglect" in Los Angeles.

"And it wasn't ego," she said. "I felt so little about myself, considered myself such a sparrow. Not just my size. I thought I was so plain. ... I did plays not to show off but because if I did that - I didn't realize it at the time - I would be somebody other than this person I didn't really approve of. I guess that's true of a lot of actors."

Yet when she married her childhood sweetheart, businessman Charles Bay, the wannabe actress shelved her aspirations and became a homemaker when his job took them to the United States.

In the 1970s, when the couple was living in Manhattan, she resumed her acting studies with drama teacher Uta Hagen, and when the Bays moved to Boston, she began acting in dinner theater, summer stock and radio.

With renewed determination, in 1973 Bay sought - and got - agents and jobs in New York, commenting later: "I don't know if it was women's lib or something that kind of turned inside of me, but I just started doing it: got new pictures, started pounding the pavement, went to agents - and I got work."

Two years later, when she and her husband moved permanently to Los Angeles, Bay's career began to skyrocket. Beginning with the 1978 motion picture "Foul Play" starring Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase, and moving into television a couple of years later with appearances on "The Jeffersons," "Dukes of Hazzard" and indelibly as Fonzie's Grandma Nussbaum in "Happy Days," Bay was never again in want of work.

Her characters were often described simply as "old woman," "elderly neighbor," an aunt or a grandmother (as in "Happy Gilmore" in 1996), even "Mrs. Santa Claus." On "Seinfeld," she memorably played a woman who tangled with Jerry over the last loaf of marble rye bread.

She was a regular character actress for director David Lynch, who cast her in "Blue Velvet," "Wild at Heart," "Twin Peaks" and "Fire Walk With Me."

Live theater gave Bay an opportunity to show her considerable acting ability. Over the years, she was in such plays as "Number Our Days," "The Man Who Came to Dinner," "Sarcophagus," "The Pleasure of His Company," "Grease" and "Finnegan's Wake."

When she appeared as the cancer-ridden mother Henny in "Bosoms and Neglect," she said it was a stretch for her, but one she enjoyed. To talk tough, she said, she simply thought of driving and being cut off in traffic, noting in that situation, "I can swear like a fishwife."

Bay's husband died in 2002, and their son died when he was 23. She has no immediate survivors.

(Oliver is a former Times staff writer.)

Posted on Fri, Sep. 16, 2011 04:17 PM

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http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/frances-bay-quirky-character-actress-23656...

The Hollywood Reporter...

Frances Bay, Quirky Character Actress, Dies at 92
2:40 PM PDT 9/16/2011 by Lindsay Flans

Canadian worked alongside the likes of David Lynch, Henry Winkler and Adam Sandler.

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Character actress Frances Bay, who played quirky, elderly women in such films and TV shows as Big Top Pee-wee, The Wedding Planner and as the marble rye lady on Seinfeld, died Sept 15. She was 92.

Bay died Thursday at Providence Tarzana Medical Center in Los Angeles, her cousin Marly Zaslov of Vancouver told the Los Angeles Times. Bay had been ill with various infections.

The Alberta, Canada, native began her acting career when she almost 60 with a small part in the 1978 comedy Foul Play, starring Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase. In the early 1980s, she appeared on TV series The Jeffersons and The Dukes of Hazzard and had a recurring role on Happy Days.

After working in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet (1986), the writer-director cast the actress in his 1990 film Wild at Heart and his TV series Twin Peaks. Bay also appeared in the movie spinoff Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992) and played Adam Sandler’s sweet grandmother in Happy Gilmore (1996).

In a 1996 episode of Seinfeld, Jerry steals a loaf of marble rye from her outside a bakery. The character, Mable Choate, returned as a neighbor of Jerry's parents — and the deciding vote in Jerry's dad's impeachment as president of the condo association — in "The Cadillac (Part 2)" and as a prosecution witness in the series finale.

Bay was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2008. The selection committee received letters from Bay’s celebrity friends and co-workers, including Sandler, Seinfeld, Lynch and Henry Winkler, among others, in addition to a petition with 10,000 names on her behalf.

Despite being struck by a car in 2002 in Glendale, Calif. (she had to have part of her right leg amputated), Bay continued to appear on TV in such series as Hannah Montana and The Middle. She also was a veteran of the L.A. theater scene.

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http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/09/character-actress-frances-bay-dies...

Los Angeles Times...

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Character actress Frances Bay dies at 92

September 16, 2011 | 12:06 pm

Bay Frances Bay, who found success as a character actress in middle age playing grandmother roles in the Adam Sandler movie "Happy Gilmore" and on TV's "Happy Days," died Thursday, according to her agent, Brian McCabe. She was 92.

Bay, a Canadian who spent much of her life as a housewife, fulfilled her desire to become an actress in the 1970s, when she was in her mid-50s.

Her first movie role came in the 1976 Goldie Hawn-Chevy Chase comedy "Foul Play," and she began a string of TV guest roles on "The Jeffersons," "The Dukes of Hazzard" and as Fonzie's grandmother on "Happy Days."

She also played the "marble rye lady" on "Seinfeld" and acted in several David Lynch films, starting with "Blue Velvet."

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