Anita Gillette

Anita Gillette (née Luebben), born August 16, 1936, in Baltimore, Maryland, is an American actress and singer who has worked extensively in theatre, television, and film. She was raised in Rossville, Maryland, graduated from Kenwood High School, and pursued formal training at the Peabody Conservatory.

Gillette made her Broadway debut in Gypsy in 1959, launching a stage career that would span nearly four decades. Her early work earned her a Theatre World Award in 1960 for her performance in Russell Patterson's Sketchbook. Subsequent Broadway appearances included Carnival!, All American, Mr. President, Kelly, Jimmy, Don't Drink the Water, Brighton Beach Memoirs, and the musical Show Boat. She also appeared in Cabaret and They're Playing Our Song, and starred in both Guys and Dolls and Neil Simon's Chapter Two, the latter earning her a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play at the 32nd Tony Awards in 1978. On February 17, 2020, she was bestowed Honorary Membership in The Lambs, America's oldest professional theatrical association. In 2012, she received a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for her role in Dan LeFranc's Off-Broadway production The Big Meal.

Gillette's television career began with an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1963. She joined the cast of the soap opera The Edge of Night in 1967, departing the following year. During this period she became a familiar presence on New York City-based game shows, appearing as a semi-regular on the syndicated What's My Line?, Match Game, and the Pyramid series, primarily those produced by Goodson-Todman and Bob Stewart. She also appeared alongside Robert Alda as a panelist on Fast Draw. Her 1970s television work included the short-lived series Me and the Chimp with Ted Bessell and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, which featured a then-unknown Robert Urich and a young Jodie Foster. She appeared in Norman Lear's All That Glitters in 1977 and in television movies including A Matter of Wife... and Death (1975) and It Happened at Lakewood Manor (1977).

Before transitioning more fully into film in the 1980s, Gillette took on several prominent television roles, including Nancy Baxter on the national run of The Baxters and Dr. W. Emily Hanover, the second wife of Dr. R. Quincy (Jack Klugman), during the eighth and final season of Quincy, M.E. — a production in which she had also previously appeared in a flashback as Quincy's deceased first wife, Helen. She held a role on Search for Tomorrow toward the end of that series' run and appeared in the David Chase series Almost Grown from 1988 to 1989. She also appeared alongside Robert Reed and Bert Convy on Super Password.

Her film work from the late 1980s onward included the role of Mona in the 1987 film Moonstruck. A recurring pattern in her subsequent film roles cast her as an on-screen mother: she played Mrs. Davis, mother of Roger Davis (Jack Black), in Bob Roberts (1992); Elaine Nickerson, mother of Robin Nickerson (Mary-Louise Parker), in Boys on the Side (1995); Mrs. Corcoran, mother of Jack Corcoran (Bill Murray), in Larger than Life (1996); Carol, mother of Renee Fitzpatrick (Jennifer Aniston), in She's The One (1996); and Mrs. McGee in The Guru (2002). In the 1990s she starred in two Hallmark Hall of Fame productions: The Summer of Ben Tyler (1996) with James Woods and A Christmas Memory (1997) with Patty Duke. Her 2000 television appearance in the short-lived Normal, Ohio had her playing Joan Gamble, the mother of John Goodman's character. In 2004 she appeared as Miss Mitzi in Shall We Dance?, and she starred in the 2006 film Hiding Victoria. She played Rose Fitzgerald in The Fitzgerald Family Christmas (2012), directed by Edward Burns.

Recurring television appearances in the 2000s included Grandma Betty on The War at Home from 2005 to 2007, Lily Flynn — mother of CSI's Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger) — in four episodes between 2005 and 2012, and Margaret Lemon, mother of Liz Lemon (Tina Fey), in two episodes of 30 Rock in 2007 and 2010. Since 2010, Gillette has made guest appearances on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Shake it Up, Modern Family, Blue Bloods, Elementary, Public Morals, and Chicago Med.