It's not the recent release of Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, the blockbuster followup to Hotel Transylvania and Hotel Transylvania 2, in all of which she voices the part of Eunice, that catches my attention, because my attendance at movies such as that is, well, totally sparse.
But I always loved that show called The Nanny, in which savvy Noo Yawk tootsie Fran always got over on the uptight CC and won the hearts of the butler, the kids, and the starchy English dad. It was always a good sitcom for those of us who love to see things wrapped up neatly in 30 minutes, and even today, fashion fans who loved seeing Fran wrapped up in haute couture have the Instagram account "What Fran Wore" to look back fondly on all those outfits. I don't know Versace from Vitameatavegamin, so that's not my thing, but if it's yours, gawk away!
Fran was in Saturday Night Fever, a quick scene with John Travolta on the dance floor, and The Hollywood Knights, Doctor Detroit, The Big Picture, UHF , Cadillac Man, and as Bobbi Fleckman, the publicist, in This Is Spinal Tap.
And she has had roles in other sitcoms, tried a talk show or two, appeared on Broadway and at Lincoln Center in Camelot.
Along the way, she became a health advocate after being successfully treated for uterine cancer, and wrote a book about her experiences, characteristically entitled "Cancer Schmancer."
I saw her last week on Good Morning America promoting that latest Transylvania picture, and I have to say she is just as appealing as ever, and I know she might not be everyone's idea of appealing. But I always like this woman of 60 years, born for real as "the flashy girl from Flushing" as Francine Joy Drescher.
And why? Because she has a voice that can be described as the ultimate New York nasality, nails on chalkboard, tin cans being dragged down an alley, all those cliches about voices...Fran is proof for sure that it's best to stick with the cards you're dealt. All right, so she's not working with a voice like Lauren Bacall's or Meryl Streep's, but she owns it, she sticks true to her voice and she makes it work.
After Dizzy Dean could no longer play baseball, the old Cardinal Hall of Famer turned to broadcasting, bringing with him boxes of country expressions and mangled English. Called on the carpet for using improper verb forms and reminded that the past tense of "slide" is not "slud," and that "ain't" is not good grammar, old Diz reminded his bosses that "a lot of guys who ain't saying 'ain't,' ain't eating."
On a less engaging personality, Fran's voice would be career poison, but she's doing fine with it, and I hope she's making movies well into the age of Grandma Yetta and beyond.
No comments:
Post a Comment