Alice Playten

Alice Playten (née Plotkin; August 28, 1947 – June 25, 2011) was an American actress born in New York City, recognized for her distinctively high-pitched, child-like voice. Her career spanned more than four decades, with Broadway appearances from 1959 to 2004.

Playten's professional career began at age eleven when she appeared in the Metropolitan Opera's original production of Alban Berg's Wozzeck in 1959, playing Marie's young son. Her Broadway work encompassed a wide range of productions, including Gypsy, Oliver!, Henry, Sweet Henry, Hello, Dolly!, Funny Girl, George M!, Rumors, Seussical, and Caroline, or Change. Her performance in Henry, Sweet Henry earned her a 1968 Theatre World Award and a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.

Off-Broadway, Playten accumulated an extensive list of credits, among them Promenade, The Last Sweet Days of Isaac, Up from Paradise, Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You, First Lady Suite, A Flea in Her Ear, National Lampoon's Lemmings, and Shlemiel the First. Her off-Broadway work brought additional recognition, including a 1973 Obie Award for Distinguished Performance for National Lampoon's Lemmings and a 1994 Obie Award for First Lady Suite. She also received a 1989 Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for Spoils of War.

Her screen credits included the films Ladybug Ladybug (1963), Who Killed Mary What's 'Er Name? (1971), California Dreaming (1979), Legend (1985), and I.Q. (1994). In Legend, she portrayed the character Blix, a major minion of the Lord of Darkness, wearing heavy makeup and prosthetics, and additionally dubbed the voice of Gump. Playten contributed voice performances to several animated projects, including Felix the Cat, Really Rosie, Heavy Metal, and My Little Pony: The Movie, as well as the television series Doug, on which she voiced both Beebe Bluff and Elmo. She was a regular cast member on the children's television series The Lost Saucer and That's Cat, and made guest appearances on Frasier, Law & Order, Third Watch, and As the World Turns, among other programs.

Playten was widely recognized by general audiences for her appearances in two Alka-Seltzer commercials from 1969 to 1970, in which she played a newlywed who prepares an oversized dumpling as her first meal for her husband, portrayed by Terry Kiser. She was married to director Joshua White from no later than July 1982 until her death. Playten died on June 25, 2011, at Sloan-Kettering Hospital in Manhattan from heart failure, following a lifetime of juvenile diabetes complicated by pancreatic cancer. She was sixty-three years old.