Remembrances of Studio City Actress Frances Bay: 1919-2011

By Diane Haithman

Studio City actress Frances Bay, best known for her roles as the “marble rye lady” on Seinfeld and Adam Sandler’s grandma in the movie Happy Gilmore, died Thursday at Providence Tarzana Medical Center of pneumonia and complications from other infections.  She was 92. 

At the time of her death, she had not retired from acting.

That’s not part of some official statement about Fran Bay’s death – it’s just something I know about her from talking to her over the course of many years.  Although as she aged the roles became fewer and farther between, she never stopped being an actor, ready to work if called.  Most recently, she portrayed Aunt Ginny on the ABC comedy The Middle.  It was a mostly a nonspeaking role, but her wacky smile said it all.

“It breaks my heart to tell you Fran is gone,” wrote Bay’s close friend Bryna Weiss, also a noted character actress, in an e-mail to Bay’s many friends. That’s a list that I am both happy and sad to be on today.

 I’m also glad I made it to her 92^nd birthday party in January at her home in the Studio City hills.  She adored parties. And true to her roots as an actress, she would shine in the spotlight, whether in front of a camera or surrounded by family and friends.  She would fret that her hearing aid kept her from being able to follow more than one conversation at a time, but she still basked in the attention during this fiesta-themed event. “I love it!” I remember her saying, pulling me closer to her wheelchair to hear this confession.

“Feisty” is the first word out of friends’ mouths to describe Frances Bay, who continued to act even after her right leg was amputated below the knee after she was struck by a car in Glendale in 2002.  That accident occurred less than a year after she lost her husband, businessman Charles “Chuck” Bay – her childhood sweetheart. She has said she knew she would marry him from the age of 9.

"Feisty" is how her friend, writer and theater critic Laura Hitchcock, describes her.  Hitchcock tells the story of going to lunch with Fran and reaching for the check – only to have Bay snatch it away and insist on paying. “I’m an old lady and I get residuals!” Fran said.

“I miss her so much, I can’t believe she’s gone and I can’t just run up to see her,” Hitchcock said Friday.  “I remember her welcoming smile."

 Born in Manville, Alberta, Canada and raised in tiny Dauphin, Manitoba, Bay began acting when a teacher encouraged her to try it.  She went on to do voice work on radio in Winnipeg and Toronto.  However, she put her acting aspirations on hold in order to follow her husband’s in his career move to the United States, taking on the role of housewife and mother to a son who was to die young, at the age of 23. (Bay is also the sister of noted sociologist, Erving Goffman, who died in 1982).

In the 1970s, when the Bays were living in Manhattan, Bay decided to return to acting, studying with famed acting teacher Uta Hagen. By then, she was already in her early 50s, but that didn’t stop her from pounding the pavement, eager for a job. The diminutive performer has said she was never afraid of character roles, and made quite career of portraying, in her words, “witches and bitches.”

In the mid-70s, the Bays moved to Los Angeles. Although she loved the stage, her movie and TV career took off. She was nearly 60 years old when she landed a role in the 1978 movie comedy Foul Play.  From there, her Hollywood career blossomed.  Her long list of movie and TV credits include the David Lynch film Blue Velvet and the director’s TV series Twin Peaks and guest roles on numerous TV series including Who’s The Boss, L.A. Law, Hill Street Blues and The Golden Girls.

In 2008, Bay received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto after family members launched an aggressive campaign.

 She didn’t know how to use a computer, and fretted to me more than once that she didn’t use or understand “modern things,” she had legions of young fans, both through her appearance in Happy Gilmore as well as taking on such youth-oriented projects as Jimmy Fallon’s music video Idiot Boyfriend   In this cheeky video, Bay’s foul-mouthed grandma character receives a lap dance of sorts from Fallon for her 80th birthday – and really seems to like it.

There’s more about my personal history with Bay to be found in one   I’ll miss her, but one of the wonderful things about her long career – and technology -- is that we can still see her anytime we want to.

Here are other thoughts:

"Frances will always be a prized part of the 'Seinfeld' legacy, which is far more than most other character actors can claim. That, to my mind, automatically gave her more cachet than Clara Peller." —Ray Richmond, veteran TV journalist and critic, Studio City

“Working with Frances on the ‘Elder Wisdom Circle’ video, I found her to be a warm, caring and gracious lady, who opened her home to us and went out of her way to put the young, first-time actress she was working with at ease. A working actress to the end, she was a consummate pro and she will be missed by all who had the good fortune to know her. Please convey my condolences to her family"—Jeff Bates, writer/producer, West Toluca Lake