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Rae Allenis a Tony Award-winning actress who has appeared in both the stage and film versions of the hit musical comedy “Damn Yankees” and includes a world-renowned unemployment counselor in “Seinfeld” and Tony’s unemployed George Costanza in several television roles. The Soprano’s aunt in “The Sopranos” died Wednesday in Los Angeles. She was 95 years old.
His death at the Cinema and Television Fund retirement home was confirmed by his niece, Betty Cosgrove.
Miss Allen made her Broadway debut in 1948 and made her big splash seven years later when she was cast as sportscaster Gloria Thorpe. “Damn Yankeesis the story of a middle-aged Washington Senator fan named Joe Hardy who makes a Faustian bargain to become a slacker and help his team prevent the hated Yankees from winning the pennant. He led a group of nimble-dancing Senators to celebrate Hardy’s beneficial impact on the team with a stunning song. “Shoeless Joe by Hannibal, Mo.” (“Who came in in a cloud of smoke? Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo.”)
Miss Allen wins her first Tony Award He was nominated for this performance, in which he re-starred in the 1958 film version of his debut. She received her second Tony nomination in 1965 for Jean Anouilh’s play “The Baggage Without a Traveler,” and won Paul Zindel’s Tony for best actress six years later. “And Miss Reardon drinks some,” in which he plays a neighbor in a story about the relationship between three neurotic sisters.
“Rae Allen and Bill Macy give just the right clumsy rudeness to the horrible neighbors too,” Clive Barnes wrote in his review: at The New York Times. He described his scenes as “among the most entertaining of the evening”.
Comedy skills also showcased In an unforgettable two-part episode of “Seinfeld.” She played Lenore Sokol, a slutty counselor who is skeptical about George. Attempts to extend unemployment benefits, including when Costanza allegedly interviewed for a job as a latex dealer at a fake company, Vandelay Industries. He softened when he saw a photograph of his ordinary-looking daughter on his desk.
“Is this your daughter? George says. “My God! my god! I hope you don’t mind me saying it. He is breathtaking.”
He asks her if she wants her phone number, but shortly after dating, her daughter leaves him as she has no hope.
Ms. Allen later acted as a researcher in “A League of Their Own” (1992) as the mother of baseball players played by Geena Davis and Lori Petty, and in the science fiction film “Stargate” (1994). . She has also been seen in TV series like “Brooklyn Bridge” and “Grey’s Anatomy” she.
In 2004, she played Quintina Blundetto, the aunt of Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) and the mother of gangster Tony Blundetto, played by Steve Buscemi, in four episodes of “The Sopranos.”
Steven Schirripa, who plays Bobby Baccalieri in “The Sopranos,” wrote in an email that Ms. Allen is a “royal player” who is “respected by everyone on the cast”.
Rae Julia Abruzzo was born on July 3, 1926, in Brooklyn. His mother, Julia (Riccio) Abruzzo, was a tailor and hairdresser. His father, Joseph, was a chauffeur and an opera singer whose siblings performed in vaudeville. At age 15, Rae played Buttercup in Gilbert and Sullivan’s production of “HMS Pinafore” in Greenwich Village.
After graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1947, Ms. Allen began her Broadway career with “Where’s Charley?” She started out as a singer in the musical She. She followed up with her role in another musical “Alive and Kicking”. His next three shows, including musicals, were “Call Me Madam,” “The Pajamas Game,” and “Damn Yankees,” all directed by Broadway luminary George Abbott, who became his mentor and father figure.
In the 1960s, Miss Allen appeared in the Broadway productions of “Oliver!”, “Fiddler on the Roof” and “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.”
By then his television and film career had begun to rise; He also started directing in the 1970s. In 1975 he was appointed director of the Stage West Theater Company in Springfield, Massachusetts, and in 1991 directed the revival of “And Miss Reardon Drinks Some” at the Zephyr Theater in Los Angeles.
He has directed productions of “Cyrano de Bergerac” twice – first at the Long Beach Center Theater starring Stacy Keach in Long Beach, California in 1978, and second at the Ruskin Group Theater in Santa Monica in 2010 with John Colella his second production.
Examining Ms. Allen’s staging of Ibsen’s “When We Dead Awaken” at Stage West in 1977, Mr. Barnes wrote that the film had “speed, conviction and perception”.
He also conducted acting workshops and provided personal coaching. He earned a BA in directing and a MA in fine arts from New York University in the 1970s.
Miss Allen’s marriages to John Allen and Herbert Harris ended in divorce. No immediate family member survives.
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