Charlotte Rae's Chart

American actress in films, stage and TV whose work spanned comedy, drama, crime melodrama, musicals, sports and political satire across six decades. From her earliest work, she thrived on character roles of women who were older than she. She is known for the TV soap "From These Roots," 1961. Rae was also noted as a comedienne, singer and dancer. In 1978, Rae was cast as flibbertigibbet housekeeper Mrs. Garrett on the Gary Coleman series "Diff'rent Strokes;" the character struck such a responsive chord with audiences that she was spun off into her own starring sitcom "The Facts of Life," 1979. She retained the role until 1986, by which time she had been nominated for two Emmys. Her work included many TV parts in shows which include "All in the Family." 1971, "Barney Miller," 1975, "St. Elsewhere," 1982 and "Murder, She Wrote," 1984. Rae provided voiceover for such animated offerings as "Tom and Jerry: The Movie," 1993 and TV's "Itsy Bitsy Spider." An off-and-on nightclub and revue performer, Charlotte Rae took her one-woman "Broadway Highlights" show on the road in 1994. In 2015, she returned to the silver screen in the feature film "Ricki and the Flash," with Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, and Rick Springfield. Rae married composer John Strauss on 4 November 1951. In the mid 1970s, he came out as bisexual, and the couple divorced in 1976. The couple had two sons. In November 2015, Rae released her new autobiography, "The Facts of My Life," which was co-written with her son, Larry Strauss. She died in Los Angeles, California, of bone cancer on 5 August 2018 at age 92.