Frances Evelyn Bay (née Goffman; January 1, 1919 – September 15, 2011) was a Canadian and American character actress and comedienne.[2] In a career that spanned 35 years, she acted in a variety of roles both in film and television. Bay was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2008.
Early life
Frances Evelyn Goffman was born January 1, 1919, in Mannville, Alberta, to Russian Jewish immigrant parents, Ann (née Averbach) and Max Goffman, and was raised in Dauphin, Manitoba. Her younger brother was the sociologist Erving Goffman.[1]
Career
Bay started her career in the 1930s as a radio actress.[3] Before World War II she acted professionally in Winnipeg and spent the war hosting the Canadian Broadcasting Company's radio show, Everybody's Program, aimed at service members overseas.[1] She studied acting with Uta Hagen.[4]
Bay returned to acting in the 1970s[3] while in her mid-fifties, beginning with a small part in Foul Play, a 1978 comedy starring Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase. A year earlier, she appeared as Mrs. Hamilton in the Christmas television special Christmastime with Mister Rogers.
Bay's first major television appearance occurred playing the grandmother to the character of Fonzie on Happy Days. She described Henry Winkler, who played Fonzie, as "just a sweet guy. He lost his own grandmother in the Holocaust, and he wrote me a letter saying I was his virtual grandmother".[4]
In 1994, she played Mrs. Pickman in John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness. In 1996, she played Adam Sandler's grandmother in the feature film Happy Gilmore. In 1999, she played Thelma, the head security guard at the Bradford robotics laboratory in the film Inspector Gadget. In 2003 Bay had a brief cameo in the movie Old School, during the funeral for the character “Blue”. Bay's other roles included a supporting role in "The Rye", a notable 1996 episode of Seinfeld in which she played a woman who got into a physical altercation with Jerry over a loaf of marble rye bread.[5]
Bay appeared in the 2002 music video for Jimmy Fallon's comedy song "Idiot Boyfriend".[6] Played the role of geriatric Phoebe Halliwell in Charmed.[7] In 2005, she reunited with her The Pit and the Pendulum director Stuart Gordon to play a fortune teller in Edmond. From 2009 to 2011, Bay had a recurring role as "Aunt Ginny" on the television series The Middle.[5] She also worked in theatre, winning both the Drama-Logue Award and Gemini Award.[3][2]
Personal life and death
Bay married Charles Irwin Bay (December 15, 1918 – June 18, 2002) in 1946.[4] The couple had a son who died when he was 23.[5]
In 2002, Bay was involved in an auto accident in Glendale, California, which required her to have her leg amputated below the knee.[5]
Bay died in the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles on September 15, 2011, of complications from pneumonia at the age of 92.[8]
