Cloris Leachman Of 'Young Frankenstein' Fame Turns 94: Overview Of Her Favorite Roles

Apr 30, 2020 by apost team

This Thursday, April 30, well-known actress Cloris Leachman turned a respectable 94! The Oscar and Emmy Award-winning star has featured in many big production movies over the years, ranging from "Young Frankenstein" to "The Muppet Movie" and "Scary Movie 4". To commemorate the versatile actress' birthday, we have compiled five of her favorite movies.

Leachman was the one who got the idea to sing "The Sweetest Little Fellow" from "Mighty Like a Rose" by Paul Robeson. As she told Rotten Tomatoes:

"I thought “The Sweetest Little Fellow” would serve the purpose: “with eyes of shiny blue, makes you think of heaven — da-da-da-da-da.” So the producers said I could sing it and then when when I heard it, it sounded like a cat mewing. We didn’t have time to fix it [laughing]."

Despite this, Leachman remembers the movie production fondly and had a great time making this old classic.

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In the same interview, the actress admitted that the making of this movie stuck in her memory for the sheer oddness of it. She and her fellow actors decided to stay in their roles as much as they could for some unremembered reason:

"We were in Texas in some godforsaken little city, little town. We never stopped using the accent no matter what we said. We were just wrapped up in it."

They kept it up despite the fact that she and her co-star Ellen Burstyn were going through troubling times in their private lives: both were experiencing a failing marriage and consequent breakup and were in the middle of divorcing their respective husbands.

In an interview with Rotten Tomatoes in 2016, Leachman stated that filming this movie was a lot of fun. She revealed that she and Gene Wilder had so much fun and were joking around so much at the set that they ended having to film multiple takes all the time. She went on to add:

"Well by the 15th take, I was getting pretty frustrated [laughing]. [...] but Gene would laugh no matter what I did. And Mel said — by the 15th take, he came up to me and said, “Stay close to ze candles; ze staircase caaan be treacherous.” It makes me laugh. Very serious, though, all of this, except [Gene] laughing. We were making a picture, we had to get things done, you know?"

This movie has a special place in Leachman's heart for a very unique kind of reason: her beloved Shih Tzu, Jo, died roughly at the time they were shooting the movie. In the film, she plays the role of a fugitive grandmother traveling around with her dead dog in her suitcase. Only Leachman was disappointed by the prop the crew had procured for the dog, so she decided to have her faithful Shih Tzu stuffed and added her to the film: 

"And the dumb stuffed one that they had was ridiculous. It didn’t look dead or alive, or it didn’t look like it had ever been a dog. So I was very proud to bring Jo up."

Do you remember the first time you saw these movies? What are your favorite Leachman movies? Tell us what you think and pass this story on to your friends and fellow movie enthusiasts!