RIP Frau Blücher

[sprite75]

Cloris Leachman has died.

Cloris Leachman, a multifaceted Oscar-winning actress who gave a tour de force performance as a desperately lonely Texas housewife in "The Last Picture Show" and a tour de farce portrayal of the grim-faced Transylvanian housekeeper Frau Blücher in "Young Frankenstein," died Jan. 27 at her home in Encinitas, Calif. She was 94.

Her manager, Juliet Green, confirmed the death but did not give a precise cause.

Ms. Leachman began her astonishingly prolific eight-decade career performing radio plays as a child in Iowa. She appeared in Shakespearean comedy and Eugene O'Neill melodrama on Broadway in the 1950s, was a television mainstay from the dawn of the medium and, at 82, became the oldest female contestant on "Dancing With the Stars." In the industriousness she displayed into her senior years, she was matched perhaps only by comedian Betty White.

Lissome and alluring in her prime — she had been a Miss America finalist at 20 — Ms. Leachman often played down or even grotesquely obscured her looks on-screen. She donned hairy warts, dominatrix outfits and ludicrously conical breasts for films under director Mel Brooks, including the 1930s horror-film sendup "Young Frankenstein" (1974), the Alfred Hitchcock parody "High Anxiety" (1977) and the madcap "History of the World: Part I" (1981).

[ER]

So many great roles, including this one:

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[FatFreddysCat]

(whinnies sadly)

Funny lady. I just re-visited "Beerfest" a couple of weeks ago, in which she had a small but memorable role as the main characters' old world German grandma. ("I alvays sleep better mit a little sausage in me.")

R.I.P.

[Allhallowsday]

She had memorable parts in KISS ME DEADLY (1955)  THE LAST PICTURE SHOW (1971) YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974) an impressive range... Good night CLORIS.  We all loved you!