Five-time Emmy nominee Marion Ross stars in the new Hallmark production Keeping Up With The Randalls. Forever remembered as Marion Cunningham on the television hit Happy Days, Ross has managed to stay in the world of acting for decades.
Her first film, Forever Female, was back in 1953, with Ginger Rogers and William Holden. After a successful movie career she moved into our homes on the television set with The Brady Bunch, Happy Days, and the Love Boat in the '70s. After numerous recurring roles on TV shows such as The Drew Carey Show, That '70s Show and Gilmore Girls, she recently appeared on Grey's Anatomy and Nurse Jackie.
With this role during a Randall family reunion she is none other than Grandma Dorrie, the sweet lady who accepts Alicia Crosby, played by Kayla Ewell from The Vampire Diaries, into the clan full of drama. In this intimate interview we talked family, retiring and getting Lost in Yonkers.
Windy City Times: Hello, Miss Ross. I just watched your film, Keeping Up With The Randalls, and you had such a sweet part in it.
Marion Ross: She's fun, isn't she? I almost have that kind of life here on Happy Days Farm, although we are not so competitive. We have all kinds of games going here. I call my place Happy Days Farm.
Windy City Times: Really? And it's in California?
Marion Ross: Yes, and everyone wants to come because my husband is a very good cook. You know I have everything. Isn't that something? I have a tennis court, and a wonderful bocce court. We put a hundred dollar bill in the old trophy and whoever wins the bocce game gets the money.
Windy City Times: Nice! I want to come play…
Marion Ross: Usually some person we don't know very well wins it. They say, "How do you play this?" You know, one of those people…
Windy City Times: I hate that!
Marion Ross: Then he beats us all. We have ping pong going on, we have the pool, it is a sweet life. In the Hallmark movie it is a bit too competitive. The moral is you hang in there.
Windy City Times: Do you play badminton like The Randalls?
Marion Ross: I do but it's a stupid game. It is about as stupid as croquet. Croquet is another really dumb one. I got injured right away in the movie, which is a really good thing.
Windy City Times: Right. Then you can get out of playing the game.
Marion Ross: Then I didn't have to do rope climbing.
Windy City Times: Poor Grandma Dorrie is beaten up so much. I feel bad for you.
Marion Ross: I know! Did you see me doing the Wii?
Windy City Times: I did.
Marion Ross: I was boxing and the next day my thighs were so sore. It was from all the crouching playing that Wii thing. [Both laugh.]
Windy City Times: Do you have a big family to draw upon for this Randalls experience?
Marion Ross: Well, now they are all grown up so they bring their wives over and there are about eight now. My daughter's in-laws like to come now. It is fun and not something I had when I was a kid.
Windy City Times: I really enjoyed you on ABC's Brothers & Sisters.
Marion Ross: Thank you.
Windy City Times: That was a very different role.
Marion Ross: Oh, yes. Did you see me on Nurse Jackie?
Windy City Times: I only watched a few episodes of that one.
Marion Ross: I cried; I looked so awful! It took me four hours to make me up. I played an abandoned person. If we call that acting, that's acting!
Windy City Times: You have been in the business for so long.
Marion Ross: I have—like, 60 years now.
Windy City Times: I heard you changed the spelling of your name when you were young from "Marian" to 'Marion" because you felt it looked better on a marquee. So you knew you would be famous.
Marion Ross: Yes, and I must say you really have to be terribly determined. This is a very tough business. Not everyone can go into it, it is really tough, boy, you have to really want it because all of the hungry ones will get ahead of you.
Windy City Times: You were in the movie Sabrina.
Marion Ross: Barely.
Windy City Times: So a small part.
Marion Ross: Yes, very little.
Windy City Times: I loved Audrey Hepburn.
Marion Ross: Ohhh, didn't we all? I should tell you this story. I was under contract to Paramount and I was like 22. One day I was up in hairdressing and underneath the hair dryer. This girl was next to me and then she gets up and was so charming you want to die. It was Audrey Hepburn. She was exactly my age. She had just come to do Roman Holiday and she was so thin. I went right out, bought two candy bars and ate them right away!
Windy City Times: That is funny.
Marion Ross: But I am still here and I got to be Mrs. C. So what is so bad?
Windy City Times: Do people identify you so much with that character that they want you to be their mother?
Marion Ross: Oh, yes and I play right along with it. I get anything I want! [Both laugh.]
Windy City Times: Can you believe the career that Ron Howard has had?
Marion Ross: Well, no because we knew he was going to be a director but we didn't know that he was going to be head of the world. He seemed like an ordinary boy and a nice guy. But he is not an ordinary guy.
Windy City Times: No, he is not. What has been the character you have played most similar to you?
Marion Ross: Mrs. C., and if you are going to do a series then you should have a character that is pretty close to you. It is very natural. What happens also is the writers watch you all week and they begin to write for you.
Windy City Times: Oh, I didn't know that.
Marion Ross: Yes, [it's about] your rhythm. They know you well. I always tell young actors make friends with those writers because they are working blind. The more they can tell what you can do the more likely they are to write to you and your talents. Don't be fighting with the writers and throwing the copy down saying, "Who wrote this?" Make some friends!
Windy City Times: Great advice. What else do you have coming up?
Marion Ross: I am going to do a play next summer in Toronto, Lost in Yonkers. I am playing that mean Jewish grandma.
Windy City Times: Oh, I love that one.
Marion Ross: Yeah, I am learning that in depth so when I get up there I won't give it a second thought.
Windy City Times: That is going to be a tough part.
Marion Ross: You are so young you may not know I did a show called Brooklyn Bridge where I played a Polish Jewish grandmother. She wasn't nearly as mean as this old lady. I can understand why she is like that…
Windy City Times: Tough as nails.
Marion Ross: Well, she has been taught this. I love having something that I am memorizing or thinking about. The art of acting is just synthesizing many things. As you get older it is quite rich. We have seen a lot of different kind of people. Unconsciously, we draw upon all of this stuff. I always have this theory that we carry in our bodies the cells of all mankind. That makes sense, doesn't it?
Windy City Times: Definitely.
Marion Ross: It is the concept that within myself, I can find it then I can be that person. I am intrigued with that. My children say, "Mother, you stare at everybody." I say, "I am sorry. I meant to be staring at you!"
Windy City Times: I get it. You are studying them.
Marion Ross: Very unconsciously.
Windy City Times: I am a starer, too; don't feel bad.
Marion Ross: Hmm, look at the murderer…
Windy City Times: Are you planning on retiring from this? You are still going strong.
Marion Ross: Nope. This business kind of retires us. I do a lot of voiceovers, such as SpongeBob SquarePants' grandma. Did you know that?
Windy City Times: I didn't know that. That's good!
Marion Ross: That's a biggie, and Handy Manny, too. Last summer my darling Mr. Paul Michael [Ross' husband] did a play together at The Globe Theatre in San Diego, which is a really world-class theatre, called The Last Romance. It was written for us by the young man who wrote Memphis on Broadway and he won the Tony Award for it. His name is Joe DiPietro. We did a play of his a couple of years ago and got to know him.
I would call him in New York. My husband would say, "Don't call him." But I called him anyway and say, "You know you write for old people really well." He is a young man of about 45. " Why don't you write us a play?" "What?" he said. Then I would wait six months and call him again. "How is it coming with our play?" "What?" He would say. Finally after two years, me and my husband wooed him in New York and got to know him, he gave us the play The Last Romance. It was a wonderful experience. We just did that last summer. We are still resting on the laurels of that.
Windy City Times: I just asked Cloris Leachman when she was going to retire and she said, "When someone hits me on the head with a lead pipe!"
Marion Ross: [Laughs] Yes, see we don't need to. Isn't that nice? As long as we have our wits about us. I suppose they could hold up a card and we could read it if we could see it.
Windy City Times: People could feed you lines forever.
Marion Ross: Well, I have worked with actors where a lot of help was done that way.
Windy City Times: I bet.
Marion Ross: That is not very much fun. Fortunately, life changes so gradually. All of the changes we will never know when it happens.
Windy City Times: Very true. It was so great to talk you today.
Marion Ross: Thank you very much, dear.
The world premiere of Keeping Up With The Randalls is July 16 on the Hallmark Channel. For details and listings visit hallmarkchannel.com .
