Today marks the third anniversary of the start of the Celebrity Birthday of the Day column, and I’ve decided that I shall no longer be writing a daily celebrity bio. The Back Row has always been, first and foremost, about the new media that I find around the web that interests me as well as cool reviews and clips from myself and the other writers on this site. One such writer in the early days of TBR was the mike, who started the Celebrity Birthday of the Day column on July 23, 2010 and wrote it for the first year of TBR’s existence. When the mike left the site, he passed the torch to me and I kept his daily column running for an additional two years (with occasional assistance from Robin), but the column was never mine to begin with. So, it is in honour of the mike that I write this one last Celebrity Birthday of the Day.
And what better way to close the book on the Celebrity Birthday of the day than by celebrating the birthday of a great character actor! Edie McClurg initially worked as a newswriter and documentary producer for KCUR-FM radio before making her film debut in the 1976 Brian De Palma film Carrie. She quickly moved into television acting and had regular roles on The Kallikaks and The Richard Pryor Show. She played roles in films such as Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie, Eating Raoul, The Secret of NIMH, Mr. Mom, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, The Little Mermaid, Curly Sue, A River Runs Through It, Natural Born Killers, Flubber, Van wilder, Cars, Cars 2, and Wreck-It Ralph. She has also appeared on TV shows including WKRP in Cincinnati, The Golden Girls, Roseanne, Dinosaurs, Goof Troop, Darkwing Duck, Seinfeld, The Addams Family, Melrose Place, 7th Heaven, Days of Our Lives, and Desperate Housewives. She’s even voiced a character in Escape From Monkey Island! But undoubtedly her most famous role is as Ed Rooney’s secretary in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. I think she’s a righteous dude. Edie McClurg turns 62 today.