Frances Bay

Actress

January 23, 1919 (92 years)

† September 15, 2011

Dauphin, Manitoba, Canada

Biography

Frances Evelyn Bay (née Goffman; January 23, 1919 – September 15, 2011) was a Canadian-American character actress known for playing a variety of quirky elderly women on film and television. In a career that spanned 35 years, she acted in a variety of roles both in film and television. After initial success in radio and stage plays, she became "The Girlfriend to the Canadian Forces" on CBC Radio during World War II, boosting troops' spirits. Marriage and a move to the U.S. led to a hiatus, durin…

Filmography

8.3

Seinfeld

Mabel Choate

A stand-up comedian and his three offbeat friends weather the pitfalls and payoffs of life in New York City in the '90s. It's a show about nothing.

8.2

Charmed

Old Phoebe

Three sisters (Prue, Piper and Phoebe) reunite and unlock their powers to become the Charmed Ones, the most powerful good witches of all time, whose prophesied destiny is to protect innocent lives from evil beings such as demons and warlocks. Each sister possesses unique magical powers that grow and evolve, while they attempt to maintain normal lives in modern day San Francisco.

8.4

The X-Files

Dorothy

The exploits of FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully who investigate X-Files: marginalized, unsolved cases involving paranormal phenomena. Mulder believes in the existence of aliens and the paranormal while Scully, a skeptic, is assigned to make scientific analyses of Mulder's discoveries that debunk Mulder's work and thus return him to mainstream cases.

7.8

ER

Georgia

ER explores the inner workings of an urban teaching hospital and the critical issues faced by the dedicated physicians and staff of its overburdened emergency room.

7.6

The Middle

Aunt Ginny

The daily mishaps of a married woman and her semi-dysfunctional family and their attempts to survive life in general in the city of Orson, Indiana.

7.5

Murder, She Wrote

Sarah McCoy

An unassuming mystery writer turned sleuth uses her professional insight to help solve real-life homicide cases.

8.0

Quantum Leap

Millie Reynolds

Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished... He woke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And so Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home.

7.6

Hill Street Blues

Elizabeth Mies

A realistic glimpse into the daily lives of the officers and detectives at an urban police station.

7.6

Cheers

Mrs. Brubaker

The story about a blue-collar Boston bar run by former sports star Sam Malone and the quirky and wonderful people who worked and drank there.

8.3

Twin Peaks

Mrs. Tremond

The body of Laura Palmer is washed up on a beach near the small Washington state town of Twin Peaks. FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper is called in to investigate her strange demise only to uncover a web of mystery that ultimately leads him deep into the heart of the surrounding woodland and his very own soul.

7.1

Hannah Montana

Cathy

At home and school, she's Miley Stewart, a typical teenager, but when the lights go down and the curtain goes up, she emerges as the glamorous and talented Hannah Montana. Having the "Best of Both Worlds" is a complicated proposition, and keeping her identity under wraps leads Miley and her friends into some hilarious capers as she tries to balance her normal life with her rock star persona.

6.7

Simon & Simon

A.J. Simon is a polished fellow with a taste for classic cars and tailored suits. Rick Simon is his less refined (but still pleasant) older brother who has a taste for cowboy boots and four-wheel drive pickups. The two of them live in San Diego, where they own a private detective agency.

7.6

Happy Days

In 1950s Milwaukee the Cunningham family must contend with Fonzie, a motorcycle riding Casanova.

7.7

ALF

Louise Beaumont

A furry alien wiseguy comes to live with a terran family after crashing into their garage.

7.1

Matlock

Samantha Bergstrom

Thrifty, folksy and cantankerous, Matlock charges a premium for his services but is worth every penny: This renowned attorney, always clothed in his trademark light-gray suit and driving his signature Ford Crown Victoria, has an uncanny knack for finding overlooked clues and exposing murderers in dramatic courtroom scenes.

7.6

The Golden Girls

Claire

Four Southern Florida seniors share a house, their dreams, and a whole lot of cheesecake. Bright, promiscuous, clueless and hilarious, these lovely, mismatched ladies form the perfect circle of friends.

7.0

Cagney & Lacey

Edna Kiss

Mary Beth Lacey and Chris Cagney are teamed up as NYPD police detectives. Their opposing personalities (one is tough and the other sensitive) mesh to make this one of the great crime-fighting duos of all time.

7.1

L.A. Law

Marian McConnell

L.A. Law is an American television legal drama series that ran for eight seasons on NBC from September 15, 1986, to May 19, 1994. Created by Steven Bochco and Terry Louise Fisher, it contained many of Bochco's trademark features including a large number of parallel storylines, social drama and off-the-wall humor. It reflected the social and cultural ideologies of the 1980s and early 1990s, and many of the cases featured on the show dealt with hot-topic issues such as abortion, racism, gay rights, homophobia, sexual harassment, AIDS, and domestic violence. The series often also reflected social tensions between the wealthy senior lawyer protagonists and their less well-paid junior staff. The show was popular with audiences and critics, and won 15 Emmy Awards throughout its run, four of which were for Outstanding Drama Series.

7.1

Newhart

Dick Loudon and his wife Joanna decide to leave life in New York City and buy a little inn in Vermont. Dick is a how-to book writer, who eventually becomes a local TV celebrity as host of "Vermont Today." George Utley is the handyman at the inn and Leslie Vanderkellen is the maid, with ambitions of being an Olympic Ski champion; she is later replaced by her cousin Stephanie, an heiress who hates her job. Her boyfriend is Dick's yuppie TV producer, Michael Harris. There are many other quirky characters in this fictional little town, including Dick's neighbors Larry, Darryl, and Darryl...three brothers who buy the Minuteman Cafe from Kirk Devane. Besides sharing a name, Darryl and Darryl never speak.

5.7

St. Elsewhere

Mrs. Renninger

St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series starred Ed Flanders, Norman Lloyd and William Daniels as teaching doctors at a lightly-regarded Boston hospital who gave interns a promising future in making critical medical and life decisions.