[msb-alumni] Dena Dietrich, 91, Who Found TV Fame as Mother Nature Died on November 21, 20201
- From: Steve <pipeguy920@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 30 Nov 2020 16:05:46 -0500
BlankDena Dietrich, 91, Who Found TV Fame as Mother Nature. By Anita Gates.
In a long acting career -- she was best known for wreaking havoc in a series of
margarine
commercials, warning, "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature."
Dena Dietrich, the kindly face and fearsome power of Mother Nature to American
television
viewers in the 1970s, died on Saturday in Los Angeles. She was 91. The death
was announced
by SAG-AFTRA, the actors' union.
Ms. Dietrich was in her early 40s in 1971 when she filmed the first of the
television
commercials that made her image famous. Dressed as a goddess in a diaphanous
white gown,
wearing fresh flowers in her hair, she strolled serenely through forests and
fields,
stopping to dip her pinkie into a small bowl for a taste of 'my sweet, creamy
butter.
When an offscreen voice informed her that what she was tasting was actually
Chiffon
margarine, the goddess snapped, declaring in a quiet but threatening voice,
"It's not nice
to fool Mother Nature."
She then raised her outspread arms, thunder roared, lightning bolts flashed and
-- in some
versions of the commercial -- wild animals stampeded. [Video: Watch on YouTube.]
The ad campaign, created by D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles, ran for almost a
decade. When the
commercials ended, Ms. Dietrich's career as a character actress roared on.
During the 1980s and '90s, she had guest roles on dozens of series, including
the comedies
'Murphy Brown,' 'Mad About You' and 'Life With Lucy' and the dramas 'NYPD Blue'
and
'Thirtysomething. She was a prison guard on 'Trapper John, M.D.' (1981) and a
self-important
psychic conducting s? ances on 'All My Children' (1994).
In a two-part episode of "The Golden Girls" in 1991, she was Bea Arthur's
visiting sister,
who has a brief affair with the ex-husband of Ms. Arthur's character.
By the time Ms. Dietrich found her favorite role, on the legal drama "Philly"
(2001-2002),
she had white hair. She played a tough judge who liked to bring her snarly pet
dog to the
courtroom. "Yes, baby, yes," she murmurs to the animal in one scene. "All these
bad people."
Deanne Frances Dietrich was born on Dec. 4, 1928, in Pittsburgh, the daughter
of Mahlon
Lloyd Dietrich, an electrician, and Helen (Wilson) Dietrich. After graduating
from West View
High School, she studied acting at HB Studios and the American Academy of
Dramatic Arts in
New York. She appeared in a variety of Off Broadway productions, among them
'The Rimers of
Eldritch' (1967), a murder drama by Lanford Wilson, at the Cherry Lane Theater.
What would
have been her Broadway debut -- 'The Freaking Out of Stephanie Blake' (1967), a
generation-gap comedy -- closed in previews, reportedly because its Hollywood
star, Jean
Arthur, was ill.
Ms. Dietrich's first official Broadway appearance was also brief: "Here's Where
I Belong," a
musical based on John Steinbeck's "East of Eden," opened and closed on March 3,
1968.
Then her luck changed.
Ms. Dietrich played a sensible older sister in Mike Nichols's Broadway
production of Neil
Simon's "The Prisoner of Second Avenue" (1971). The play, starring Peter Falk
and Lee Grant
as Manhattanites struggling through a bad economy, ran for almost two years and
won two Tony
Awards.
Live theater was a long-running facet of Ms. Dietrich's career. She often told
the story of
being the understudy for Lillian Roth, who was playing Fanny Brice's mother, in
a national
tour of "Funny Girl" in 1965. Ms. Roth made a habit of disappearing shortly
before curtain
time -- or during intermission. Sometimes she came back. Ms. Dietrich learned
to make quick
costume changes.
In 2005, Ms. Dietrich was a Russian grandmother in "At the Beach House," a
drama by Aram
Saroyan, in Los Angeles. Terry Morgan, reviewing the play in Variety, didn't
think much of
it but gave at least one cast member solid praise.
"Dietrich is quite good as the grandmother, who's made of tougher stuff than
her
descendants," Mr. Morgan wrote, "and her mix of kindness with a hint of steel
brings the
character to life."
She worked in film, too. Her first was 'The Crazy World of Julius Vrooder'
(1974), as a
misguided Vietnam veteran's mother. In Mel Brooks's 'History of the World, Part
I' (1981),
she was a helpful citizen of ancient Rome, advising Empress Nympho (Madeline
Kahn) on
partners for the coming orgy.
Her final screen appearance was in "Sister's Keeper," a 2007 crime drama about
a contract
killer. No immediate family members survive.
In a 2005 video interview, Ms. Dietrich made clear that she had no regrets
about being best
known for her 30-second margarine ads. In fact, she admitted, her career had
largely been
limited to New York until she became Mother Nature and Hollywood started to
call. 'I've
loved everything I've done' as an actress, she said, then summed up her
feelings in four
words: 'I've never regretted anything.
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