31 Facts About Charlotte Rae

1.

Charlotte Rae Lubotsky was an American character actress and singer whose career spanned six decades.

2.

Charlotte Rae received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy in 1982.

3.

Charlotte Rae appeared in two Facts of Life television films: The Facts of Life Goes to Paris in 1982 and The Facts of Life Reunion in 2001.

4.

Charlotte Rae voiced the character of "Nanny" in 101 Dalmatians: The Series and Aunt Pristine Figg in Tom and Jerry: The Movie.

5.

Charlotte Rae appeared as Gammy Hart in Girl Meets World.

6.

In November 2015, Charlotte Rae released her autobiography, The Facts of My Life, which was co-written with her son, Larry Strauss.

7.

Charlotte Rae Lubotsky was born April 22,1926, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

8.

Charlotte Rae was the second of three sisters, in between Beverly and Miriam.

9.

Charlotte Rae attended Northwestern University, although she did not complete her studies.

10.

In 1954, Charlotte Rae made her TV debut on episodes of Look Up and Live and The United States Steel Hour.

11.

Charlotte Rae was nominated for an Emmy Award for her supporting role in the 1975 drama Queen of the Stardust Ballroom.

12.

In January 1975, Charlotte Rae became a cast member on Norman Lear's ABC television comedy Hot l Baltimore, wherein she played Mrs Bellotti, whose dysfunctional adult son Moose, who was never actually seen, lived at the "hot l".

13.

Charlotte Rae appeared in an early season of Sesame Street as Molly the Mail Lady.

14.

Charlotte Rae was a regular on the Rich Little Show, a variety show that ran for 11 episodes in 1976.

15.

In July 1979, Charlotte Rae proposed the idea for a spinoff based on "The Girls' School" episode from Diff'rent Strokes.

16.

Charlotte Rae had a stipulation written into her contract that said she could return to Diff'rent Strokes if the new spinoff was not successful.

17.

Between the first and second seasons, Charlotte Rae went on a very stringent diet and at the start of the second season had lost an enormous amount of weight.

18.

In 1982, Charlotte Rae received an Emmy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Edna Garrett in The Facts of Life.

19.

The reason for this was that Charlotte Rae felt that the girls' characters were maturing and not requiring as much of Mrs Garrett's rearing and advice.

20.

Towards the end of the seventh season, Charlotte Rae began to contemplate leaving the series.

21.

Charlotte Rae wanted to spend more time doing theater as well as do some traveling.

22.

Leachman inherited Charlotte Rae's top billing in the cast and her character remained for the show's last two years.

23.

In 2007, the entire cast was invited to attend the TV Land Awards where several members of the cast, including Charlotte Rae, sang the show's theme song.

24.

Charlotte Rae appeared in Ben Bagley's revue The Littlest Revue in 1956, appearing alongside Joel Grey and Tammy Grimes, among others, and singing songs by Sheldon Harnick, Vernon Duke, and Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, a parody of opera singer Helen Traubel's Las Vegas night club act, among others.

25.

Charlotte Rae received two Tony Award nominations during her Broadway career.

26.

In 1973, Charlotte Rae played the role of Southern Comfort in Terrence McNally's spoof Whiskey at Saint Clements' Theatre Off-Broadway.

27.

Charlotte Rae appeared in The Vagina Monologues Off-Broadway in 1999.

28.

Charlotte Rae had two sons with Strauss: Lawrence, a high school teacher, and his older brother Andrew.

29.

Charlotte Rae's left carotid artery was cleared of blockage as well.

30.

In 2009, due to the frequency of pancreatic cancer in her own family, Charlotte Rae was screened, diagnosed early, and became cancer-free after six months of chemotherapy.

31.

Charlotte Rae died at her home in Los Angeles, California, on August 5,2018.