Rose Marie Mazetta, better known under her stage name of Rose Marie and remembered for playing one of Rob Petrie’s co-writers on The Alan Brady Show on The Dick Van Dyke Show, has died at the age of 94. Variety reports:
Rose Marie, best known for her role as Sally Rogers on “The Dick Van Dyke Show," who had a nine-decade career in show business, died Thursday in Van Nuys, Calif. She was 94.
Publicist Harlan Boll confirmed her death.
Rose Marie was Emmy nominated three times for her work on “The Dick Van Dyke Show,†in which she played part of the writing team, led by Van Dyke’s Rob Petrie, for the fictional “Alan Brady Show.†The actress began a five-season stint as Sally Rogers in 1960.
She was a child star in vaudeville, the movies, and on the radio and later as an adult on the legitimate stage, in clubs, in Vegas, and on television. Carl Reiner was quoted as saying that she was the one and only candidate considered for the part of Sally Rogers, characterizing her as “a force of nature”. Writer Bill Persky said “she always delivered.” Dick Van Dyke hasn’t commented yet although I suspect he will.
She said of herself that she had the longest career in show business history and she was probably right. Certainly the breadth of her experience would be impossible to duplicate today.
LOVED her, and that show, and Maury Amsterdam.
“She said of herself that she had the longest career in show business history and she was probably right”
I think Mickey Rooney — America’s greatest actor, and I mean that — had the longest career.
Yeah, he started before he was 2, didn’t he?
He was underutilized as a dramatic actor. He was wonderful in Captains Courageous and later on in Requiem for a Heavyweight.
He was a first-rate dramatic actor. From childhood. See the scene in The Devil is a Sissy where he’s sitting on the curb outside the prison awaiting his father’s execution. The street lights suddenly go dim, and he knows. The look of anguish that goes across his face is heart-breaking.
When I say greatest, I mean it in the sense that he could do anything required of him and do it well: Sing, dance, play a musical instrument, deliver a solid dramatic or comedic performance. He was the complete package.
I don’t honestly care much for his comedic performances except for a very few. He was too obviously imitating his dad, Joe Yule.
I know it was called the Dick Van Dyke show, and he was the star, but I think it was a great ensemble show. I think we would be hard pressed to find many shows that had a better overall cast.
Steve