Marcia Wallace - Career

Career

Wallace moved from Iowa to New York the day that she graduated from college with $150 dollars in her pocket. To make ends meet she performed in summer stock, typed scripts, did commercials and worked as a substitute English teacher in the Bronx. After performing for a year in a Greenwich Village nightclub Wallace and four fellow entertainer friends formed an improvisational group, The Fourth Wall. In 1968 she appeared for a year Off-Broadway with the her group. Afterwards, she made several other appearances in improvisational shows, and, after losing 100 pounds (45 kg) from her previous weight of 230, appeared in a nude production of Dark of the Moon at the avant-garde Mercer Arts Center. She also did commercials and studied with renowned acting teacher Uta Hagen.

Wallace was a semi-regular on The Merv Griffin Show, appearing over 75 times. When the show moved to the west coast, Wallace moved to Hollywood with it at Griffin's request. One of these appearances in March 1972 led to a phone call from TV producer Grant Tinker, who offered her a supporting role on The Bob Newhart Show on the recommendation of CBS founder Bill Paley The role of Carol Kester (later Carol Kester Bondurant), receptionist to Bob Newhart, was written specifically for her.

When that series ended its six-season run in 1978, Wallace began three decades of television appearances as a game show panelist, on shows such as Hollywood Squares, Password Plus and its 1980s spin-off Super Password, Whew!, the 1980s version of Crosswits, Hot Potato, Body Language, The $25,000 Pyramid, Double Talk, Win, Lose or Draw, To Tell the Truth and Match Game. She was also on special celebrity episodes of the Ray Combs version of Family Feud and the Jim Perry version of Card Sharks. In April 2008, Wallace appeared on the interactive show GSN Live.

In addition to her game show appearances, Wallace was seen on television as a school principal in two episodes of ALF, played "Mrs. Caruthers" in a few episodes of Full House, and appeared in episode #227 of Bewitched ("Laugh, Clown, Laugh") as Darrin's secretary in 1971. She and Bob Newhart both reprised their signature roles from The Bob Newhart Show in episode #147 of Murphy Brown ("Anything But Cured"). She also appeared on The Brady Bunch twice, once as Marcia's teacher and once as the woman who sold Jan a Mod New Wig in "Will the Real Jan Brady Please Stand Up". Wallace also had guest appearances on Charles In Charge, Murder, She Wrote, Magnum, P.I., and A Different World, On Taxi, she portrayed herself, chosen as the ideal date of Rev. Jim Ignatowski. Later, Wallace played the maid on the satirical series That's My Bush!, and in 2009, appeared on the daytime soap The Young and the Restless where she played an inefficient assistant kidnapper, Annie Wilkes. She currently has a recurring role on The Simpsons as Edna Krabappel, which earned her an Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance in 1992 and she has appeared in over 100 episodes.

On film, Wallace appeared in such features as My Mother the Werewolf, Teen Witch and Ghoulies III: Ghoulies Go to College. She also played a high school drama teacher who sponsors a Gay Straight Alliance in the 2008 film Tru Loved.

Wallace's work onstage includes An Almost Perfect Person in Los Angeles, which she also produced, a tour of the female version of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple, and productions of Same Time Next Year, Twigs, It Had to Be You, Supporting Cast, Prisoner of Second Avenue, Plaza Suite, Gypsy, Promises, Promises, Born Yesterday, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Steel Magnolias and Last of the Red Hot Lovers – in which she played all three roles at various times. She also performed in The Vagina Monologues in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and San Diego.