Ellen Albertini Dow is an actress best known for her role as rapping grandmother Rosie in the Adam Sandler-Drew Barrymore film The Wedding Singer, in which she rapped lines from the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight.” A medley of the song featuring Dow and the Sugarhill Gang was featured on the movie’s soundtrack and hit Billboard’s Top 5 in 1998.
Dow also appeared in the films Sister Act and its sequel Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, as well as Patch Adams and Wedding Crashers.
Her work in television was extensive, including appearances on The Twilight Zone, Highway to Heaven, Mr. Belvedere, Webster, Newhart, Murphy Brown, Designing Women, The Golden Girls, The Wonder Years, Wings, Quantum Leap, Family Matters, Cybill, Seinfeld, ER, The Nanny, Suddenly Susan, Will & Grace, Judging Amy, Scrubs, Six Feet Under, My Name is Earl, Cold Case, Shameless, New Girl and a recurring role as Grandma Harriet Krupp on the WB comedy Maybe It’s Me.
Ellen Albertini Dow is an actress best known for her role as rapping grandmother Rosie in the Adam Sandler-Drew Barrymore film The Wedding Singer, in which she rapped lines from the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight.” A medley of the song featuring Dow and the Sugarhill Gang was featured on the movie’s soundtrack and hit Billboard’s Top 5 in 1998.
Dow also appeared in the films Sister Act and its sequel Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, as well as Patch Adams and Wedding Crashers.
Her work in television was extensive, including appearances on The Twilight Zone, Highway to Heaven, Mr. Belvedere, Webster, Newhart, Murphy Brown, Designing Women, The Golden Girls, The Wonder Years, Wings, Quantum Leap, Family Matters, Cybill, Seinfeld, ER, The Nanny, Suddenly Susan, Will & Grace, Judging Amy, Scrubs, Six Feet Under, My Name is Earl, Cold Case, Shameless, New Girl and a recurring role as Grandma Harriet Krupp on the WB comedy Maybe It’s Me.
Dow studied theater at Cornell University and was also said to have studied mime in Paris with Marcel Marceau and Jacques Lecoq. She also studied acting and dancing in New York and taught children’s theater and musical theater for 30 years.
Dow died May 4, 2015, in Los Angeles. She was 101.
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