Edie McClurg

Edie McClurg (born July 23, 1951) is an American character actress. She is known for her perky North Central dialect (or Upper Midwest accent), common to persons from Middle America. She has performed in nearly 90 movies and 55 TV episodes. --- McClurg was born in Kansas City, Missouri. She attended University of Missouri, and she earned a master's degree from Syracuse University. She worked as a newswriter and documentary producer for KCUR-FM, a National Public Radio affiliate. McClurg's onscreen debut was as Helen Shyres, one of Carrie's classmates and tormentors, in the 1976 Brian De Palma horror film Carrie. She was a comedy regular on the Tony Orlando and Dawn variety show (1976–77), and then a cast member of two shows in 1977, the short-lived sitcom The Kallikaks and The Richard Pryor Show. In 1980, she regularly performed on The David Letterman Show morning show as Mrs. Marv Mendenhall. She appeared in Elvira, Mistress of the Dark as Town Council President Chastity Pariah. Having been a member San Francisco's improv comedy, the Pitcshel Players, she moved to Los Angeles and joined the Groundlings troupe, she worked with fellow Groundling player, Paul Reubens, a.k.a. Pee-Wee Herman, on his first play The Pee Wee Herman Show, in which she appeared in 1981 as "Hermit Hattie". She has performed in nearly 90 movies and 55 TV episodes, usually typecast as a middle-aged, somewhat stubborn and dimwitted Midwesterner. Director John Hughes enjoyed casting her; she appears in four of his feature films. McClurg is known for a number of roles, including Mrs. Burns in A River Runs Through It; Mr. Rooney's secretary Grace in Ferris Bueller's Day Off; Lucille Tarlek on WKRP in Cincinnati; Lynn in She's Having a Baby; perky PTA member (and ally of Stella Johnson) Willamae Jones in the television remake of Harper Valley PTA; motherly and very friendly next-door neighbor Mrs. Patty Poole on The Hogan Family; nosy next-door neighbor Bonnie Brindle on Small Wonder; the car-rental agent whom Steve Martin berates in Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Mrs. Violet Bleakman on Clifford the Big Red Dog; and as Mrs. Beeker on the long-running family drama 7th Heaven. McClurg guest starred as Barri's mother in a January 2007 episode of Campus Ladies.