Alice Drummond

Character actress Alice Drummond built a solid background in theater before regularly playing interesting older ladies in film and television. During the '60s, she played Nurse Jackson on the gothic TV series Dark Shadows. Her early work was mostly confined to the stage, though, and by 1970 she had earned a Tony nomination for her performance in The Chinese & Dr. Fish. During the '80s she appeared in many feature films and television shows, usually in roles like eccentric old ladies on Night Court. One of her most recognizable parts was the librarian who is chased by a ghost through the New York Public Library in the opening scene of Ghostbusters. During the '90s, she got a few more substantial roles, like a patient in Awakenings and Ray Finkle's mother in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. She found meager success with independent comedy dramas in the late '90s, starting with Adrienne Shelly's I'll Take You There. In 2001 she played Aunt Millie in Tom Rice's The Rising Place and in 2003 she was Grandma Dottie in Peter Hedges' Pieces of April. Drummond died in 2016, at age 88.