Studio City actress Frances Bay, 89, finally gets her star

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Before all the available space in the blogosphere gets taken by updates on Miley Cyrus (new boyfriend) or O.J. Simpson (new lawyers), lets grab a little for someone who deserves it: Studio City actress Frances Bay, who, just shy of her 90th birthday, finally received a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame in Toronto -- like our Hollywood Walk of Fame, except Canadian --earlier this month.

Bay, raised in the small town of Dauphin, Manitoba, has a raft of theater credits, off-Broadway and locally (‘The Man Who Came to Dinner’ Long Beach Center Theater, 1978; ‘Uncommon Women,’ L.A. Stage Co. 1981; John Guare’s ‘Bosoms and Neglect,’ Odyssey Theater, 1986). Still, she is probably best known for her Hollywood roles as Adam Sandler’s grandmother in the movie ‘Happy Gilmore,’ as the doddery aunt in ‘Blue Velvet’ and for a turn on ‘Seinfeld’ as the little old lady that Jerry Seinfeld mugs to steal her loaf of marble rye bread.

Friends and fans also remember the horrifying news in the winter of 2002 when Bay had been struck by a teenage driver while crossing a street in Glendale. She lost a leg, suffered multiple injuries and was in a coma for what seemed like forever to those who know her. That includes me: I met Bay at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s New Playwrights Conference in the summer of 1983 when she was one of the actors and I was on a fellowship to study criticism. Bay was noted for roundly scolding those who complained about our modest dormitory digs: For her, it was never about comfort, always about the work.

Bay bounced back from the accident -- although she remained frustrated by the fact that there were few roles available for a tiny, over-80 sparrow with one leg. And in 2007, family members in Canada launched a massive online petition to get Frances her star in Canada, as detailed in a recent ‘CBC News Sunday Night’ documentary. It worked: Bay was notified in June that she would be traveling to Toronto in September for the 10th annual award festivities. Check out her delighted grin in more event photos.

Congratulations, Franny.

-- Diane Haithman

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