Georgia Engel made a quiet, breathy delivery count in comedies full of louder people. We admire her precise timing, though repeated casting as sweet, apparently dim women could make the skill easy to overlook.
Fi1m perspective
Georgia Engel’s high, breathy voice could make an ordinary observation sound innocent. Among louder comic performers, she could be funny without competing for volume. We admire the timing, and the care that made it seem so unforced. Her film debut came in Miloš Forman’s Taking Off (1971), but Georgette Franklin Baxter in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, whom she played from 1972 to 1977, established the comic manner for which she became known.
Her later television work kept returning to that territory, with Pat MacDougall in Everybody Loves Raymond from 2003 to 2005 and Mamie Sue Johnson in Hot in Cleveland (2012). The latter reunited her with Betty White. Such parts suited her, but sweetness and apparent dimness could become expected rather than surprising. The reservation is about what she was asked to play: familiarity with the voice could make the precision of her delivery too easy to miss.
Open Season (2006), in which she voices Bobbie, is a less persuasive reason to seek her out. We grew impatient with its central double act: at 86 minutes, the film still spends too long trying to make us care. There is lively visual detail, and Billy Connolly makes a useful comic contribution, but neither is enough to repair that weakness. We would not recommend it on the strength of a familiar cast. Engel’s animation work belongs in the account of her career without requiring us to be kinder to the film.
Her later stage work gave her different demands. Mrs Tottendale in The Drowsy Chaperone (2006) involved physical comedy, including spit takes; Annie Baker’s John (2015) gave her the lead role of Mertis, written for her. That move from familiar supporting player to lead allowed the naturalness and precision of her acting to receive closer attention. Start with Georgette, and listen for how carefully Engel delivers those apparently artless observations.
Biography
Georgia Engel was an American actress. She played Georgette Franklin Baxter on the sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show from 1972 to 1977.
She began her career in theatre, appearing in a 1971 off-Broadway production of The House of Blue Leaves that transferred to Los Angeles, where she was seen by Mary Tyler Moore and Grant Tinker. Later television roles included Pat MacDougall on Everybody Loves Raymond (2003–2005) and Mamie Sue on Hot in Cleveland (2012–2015). She received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations and a BAFTA Award nomination.
Engel was born on 28 July 1948 in Washington, D.C., and died on 12 April 2019 in Princeton, New Jersey.
