Friends of late, Tony-nominated actor Charlotte Rae will gather to celebrate her life and legacy November 1. The invitational celebration is organized by Ted Seifman, Jim Brochu, David Staller, and Ted Snowdon.
Best known for playing Edna Garrett on TV’s The Facts of Life (a spinoff of Diff’rent Strokes), Rae passed away August 5 in Los Angeles at the age of 92. The actor had been diagnosed with bone cancer in April 2017 following a bout with pancreatic cancer seven years earlier.
She made her Broadway debut in 1952 in Three Wishes for Jamie and then went on to play Mrs. Peachum in the 1954 revival of Threepenny Opera. Other Broadway credits included The Golden Apple (1954), The Littlest Revue (1956), Li’l Abner (1956), and The Beauty Part (1962). She received Tony nominations for her next two Broadway outings: Mrs. Bardell in the musical Pickwick in 1965 and Gertrude, Beryl, and Filigree Bones in Israel Horovitz’s Morning, Noon and Night in 1968. Her final Main Stem credits were Murray Schisgal’s short-lived The Chinese and Dr. Fish in 1970 and David Rabe’s In the Boom Boom Room in 1973.