Frances Bay (January 23, 1919 – September 15, 2011) was a U.S.-based Canadian character actress, best-known for playing quirky, elderly women on film and television. She began her acting career in her mid-50s.
Bay may also be familiar from her performance in the music video for Jimmy Fallon’s comedy song, Idiot Boyfriend. She made an appearance as Mrs. Pickman in John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness. She may be best-remembered for her performance as the hapless but loving grandmother of Adam Sandler’s titular character in the 1996 film Happy Gilmore.
Frances Bay appeared as Mrs. Hamilton in the Christmas television special Christmastime with Mister Rogers. She went on to play small roles in films like The Karate Kid, Big Top Pee-wee and Twins.
Her first major television appearance occurred playing the grandmother to the character of Arthur Fonzarelli (aka “The Fonz”) on Happy Days. In 1983, she played the grandmother in Little Red Riding Hood in Faerie Tale Theatre for Showtime. In 1994, she played Mrs. Pickman in John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness.
In 1986, Bay appeared as the doddery aunt of Kyle MacLachlan’s character in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet. This role seems to have endeared the actress to Lynch, who recast her in several subsequent works, including as a foul-mouthed madam in Wild at Heart, and as Mrs. Tremond on Twin Peaks and its movie spin-off, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.
She has the distinction of appearing in the final episodes of three long-running sitcom series: Happy Days, Who’s the Boss? and Seinfeld. Bay had the opportunity to play Cousin Winifred in the fourth to last episode of Road To Avonlea, for which she won a Gemini Award.
Frances Bay cause of death
Frances Bay died of pneumonia and other complications.
Frances Bay was 92 years old at the time of her death
Jerry Seinfeld Mugs an Old Lady for her Marble Rye