Dody Goodman: Movies & Box Office

Dody Goodman (born Dolores Goodman on October 28, 1914 in Columbus, Ohio) was an American character actress renowned for her high‑pitched, slightly breathy voice and her knack for playing delightfully off‑beat, often ditzy matriarchs and teachers in both television and film. The daughter of Leona and Dexter Goodman, she grew up alongside a sister, Rose, and a brother, Dexter Jr., attending North High School (now Dominion Middle School) where she later earned a place in the school’s Hall of Fame; she went on to study dramatics at Northwestern University and refined her movement skills at the School of American Ballet and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School. Goodman's Broadway debut arrived in 1941, and she soon became a fixture in musical revues, dazzling audiences in High Button Shoes (1947) and Wonderful Town (1953) with solo dance numbers that earned her press attention; off‑Broadway she headlined the novelty song “Someone’s Been Sending Me Flowers” in the 1955 Shoestring Revue and later starred in Jerry Herman’s Parade (1960) alongside Charles Nelson Reilly. Her television career took off after talk‑show host Jack Paar invited her onto The Tonight Show in the 1950s, where her improvised malapropisms and whimsical asides made her a semi‑regular until 1958. Goodman later became a beloved fixture on sitcoms, most famously as the frantic mother in the cult series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, where her voice announced the show’s title each episode, and as Aunt Sophia on Diff’rent Strokes (1981‑82). Film audiences remember her as Blanche Hodel, the zany secretary in the principal’s office in Grease (1978) and its sequel Grease 2 (1982). She also provided the voice of Miss Miller, the chaperone of the Chipettes, in the animated series Alvin and the Chipmunks and its feature The Chipmunk Adventure. Beyond acting, Goodman modeled for photographer Cris Alexander and co‑produced the photo book Women, Women, Women!; she earned an Emmy nomination in 1958 and a Drama Desk nomination in 1984 for her stage work. The actress spent her final years at the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, New Jersey, passing away of natural causes on June 22, 2008 at age 93. She never married and was survived by a large extended family of nieces, nephews, and great‑nieces and nephews.