Anne Ramsey


Angelina Ramsey was an American stage, television, and film actress. She portrayed Mama Fratelli in The Goonies and Mrs. Lift, mother of Danny DeVito's protagonist, in Throw Momma from the Train. The latter film saw Ramsey nominated for a Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Early life

Ramsey was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the daughter of Eleanor, 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, and a niece of U.S. Ambassador David S. Smith. Ramsey was raised in Great Neck, New York and Greenwich, Connecticut. She attended Bennington College where she became interested in theatre. She performed in several Broadway productions in the 1950s and married actor Logan Ramsey in 1954. They moved to Philadelphia 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, Wonder Woman, Three's Company and Ironside. She appeared with her husband in seven films, including her first, The Sporting Club, and her last, Meet the Hollowheads.
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 Throw Momma from the Train, with Billy Crystal and Danny DeVito. The film also earned her a second Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress; she had received her first for The Goonies.
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 Woodland Hills, California.

Filmography

Film

Television