Angelina Anne Ramsey-Mobley (March 27, 1929 – August 11, 1988) was an American actress. She is best known for her film roles as Mama Fratelli in ''

The Goonies ''The Goonies'' is a 1985 American adventure comedy film co-produced and directed by Richard Donner from a screenplay by Chris Columbus, based on a story by Steven Spielberg. In the film, kids who live in the "Goon Docks" neighborhood of Astor ...

'' (1985) and as Mrs. Lift in ''

Throw Momma from the Train ''Throw Momma from the Train'' is a 1987 American crime comedy film starring and directed by Danny DeVito in his theatrical directorial debut. The film co-stars Billy Crystal, Anne Ramsey, Rob Reiner, Branford Marsalis, Kim Greist, and Kate Mul ...

'' (1987), the latter of which earned her nominations for an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

and a Golden Globe Award.

Early life

Ramsey was born in

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...

, the daughter of Eleanor (née Smith), the former national treasurer of the Girl Scouts of the USA, and Nathan Mobley, an insurance executive. Her mother was a descendant of the Pilgrims ( William Brewster), and her uncle was U.S. Ambassador

David S. Smith David Shiverick Smith (January 25, 1918 – April 13, 2012) was the United States ambassador to Sweden from 1976–1977. Smith was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of Anna (née Shiverick) and Floyd Monroe Smith. He was appointed by Presi ...

. Ramsey was raised in

Great Neck, New York Great Neck is a region on Long Island, New York, that covers a peninsula on the North Shore and includes nine villages, among them Great Neck, Great Neck Estates, Great Neck Plaza, Kings Point, and Russell Gardens, and a number of unincorpo ...

and

Greenwich, Connecticut Greenwich (, ) is a town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. At the 2020 census, the town had a total population of 63,518. The largest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast, Greenwich is home to many hedge funds and other ...

. She attended

Bennington College Bennington College is a private liberal arts college in Bennington, Vermont. Founded in 1932 as a women's college, it became co-educational in 1969. It claims to be the first college to include visual and performing arts as an equal partner in ...

where she became interested in

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

. She performed in several Broadway productions in the 1950s and married actor Logan Ramsey in 1954. They moved to

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

where they formed the Theatre of the Living Arts.

Career

In the 1970s, Ramsey began a successful Hollywood career in character roles and appeared in such television programs as ''

Little House on the Prairie The ''Little House on the Prairie'' books is a series of American children's novels written by Laura Ingalls Wilder (b. Laura Elizabeth Ingalls). The stories are based on her childhood and adolescence in the American Midwest (Wisconsin, Kansas, ...

'', ''

Wonder Woman Wonder Woman is a superhero created by the American psychologist and writer William Moulton Marston (pen name: Charles Moulton), and artist Harry G. Peter. Marston's wife, Elizabeth Holloway Marston, Elizabeth, and their life partner, Olive Byr ...

'', ''

Three's Company ''Three's Company'' is an American sitcom television series that aired for eight seasons on ABC from March 15, 1977, to September 18, 1984. It is based on the British sitcom '' Man About the House''. The story revolves around three single room ...

'' and '' Ironside''. She appeared with her husband in seven films, including her first, '' The Sporting Club'' (1971), and her last, '' Meet the Hollowheads'' (1989). In 1988, Ramsey was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture for her performance in ''

'' (1987), with

Billy Crystal William Edward Crystal (born March 14, 1948)On page 17 of his book ''700 Sundays'', Crystal displays his birth announcement, which gives his first two names as "William Edward", not "William Jacob" is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. ...

and

Danny DeVito Daniel Michael DeVito Jr. (born November 17, 1944) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He gained prominence for his portrayal of the taxi dispatcher Louie De Palma in the television series ''Taxi'' (1978–1983), which won him a Gold ...

. The film also earned her a second Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress; she had received her first for ''

'' (1985). In February 1988, she guest-starred on an episode of '' ALF'' that aired six months before her death. She also appeared in six films released in the two years after her death.

Death

Ramsey's somewhat slurred speech, a trademark of her later performances, was caused in part from having had some of her tongue and her jaw removed during surgery for esophageal cancer in 1984. In 1988, Ramsey's cancer returned. She died in August at the

Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital In physics, motion is the phenomenon in which an object changes its position with respect to time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed and frame of reference to an observer and me ...

in Woodland Hills, California.Dr. Hackenstein (1988)
. ''

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of At ...

'' (TCM). Retrieved February 6, 2010. Ramsey is buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in

North Omaha, Nebraska North Omaha is a community area in Omaha, Nebraska, in the United States. It is bordered by Cuming and Dodge Streets on the south, Interstate 680 on the north, North 72nd Street on the west and the Missouri River and Carter Lake, Iowa on the ea ...

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ramsey, Anne 1929 births 1988 deaths 20th-century American actresses Actresses from Nebraska Actresses from Omaha, Nebraska American film actresses American people of English descent American stage actresses American television actresses Bennington College alumni Burials in Nebraska Deaths from cancer in California Deaths from esophageal cancer