Marcia Wallace

Mrs. Lewis

Marcia initially induced laughs because of a weight problem, playing plump, self-deprecating characters in such musicals as The Music Man. Managing to drop much of her excess weight over time, she found, to her delight, that she could still make people laugh. Finding an invaluable training ground with the improvisational comedy group “The Fourth Wall” in 1968, she appeared with the company off-Broadway for a spell. In between times she studied with acting guru Uta Hagen. She fleshed out her on-camera resume at first with bit roles on such shows as Bewitched, Columbo, and Love, American Style and received her initial on-camera break with recurring appearances on The Merv Griffin Show. As a direct result, she won the best role of her career as Carol Kester, the chatty, lovelorn receptionist on The Bob Newhart Show. For seven years, Marcia won tons of fans as the brash, slightly ditsy co-worker and confidante who was always looking for that “special guy.”

Guesting on all the popular lightweight shows of the day (Murder, She Wrote, Magnum, P.I., Taxi), she also added to the fun on Full House, Charles in Charge, and Alf, in which she nabbed recurring roles. Marcia became just as popular as a celebrity game show panelist, particularly on The Match Game. On the summer stock and dinner theater circuits, she appeared in such engaging comedies as Plaza Suite, Born Yesterday, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, and Last of the Red Hot Lovers, as well as the musicals Gypsy and Promises, Promises.

Today’s generations will recognize her Emmy-winning voice work as Bart’s teacher, Mrs. Krabappel, on The Simpsons, and she more recently had a supporting role as Maggie the housekeeper on the short-lived, irreverent spoof That’s My Bush! Marcia has been a regular in commercials for over three decades. On film, she has often played an amusing, unwitting foil to kid-like shenanigans in such films as My Mom’s a Werewolf (1989), Teen Witch (1989), and Ghoulies III: Ghoulies Go to College (1991). She has guest hosted televised comedy clubs and talk shows, and was the actual co-host of a diet show on cable. Marcia remains on the lecture circuit and has published her own memoir, Don’t Look Back, We’re Not Going That Way! which gently and admirably laces her myriad of struggles with wit, humor and a positive outlook.