Florence Stanley

Florence Stanley (born Florence Schwartz; July 1, 1924 – October 3, 2003) was an American actress of stage, film, and television. She is best known for her roles in Barney Miller (1975–1977) and its spinoff Fish (1977-1978), My Two Dads (1987–1990), and Nurses (1991–1994), and the voice of Wilhelmina Bertha Packard in the franchise of Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Early life and career Stanley began a long career on stage, film and TV starting in the 1940s. Her earliest theatrical performances include The Importance of Being Earnest with the Touring Players, Bury The Dead at New York's Cherry Lane Theatre, and Machinal. She began using the stage-name Florence Stanley at some point in her career. During the 1950s, Stanley appeared in numerous live TV shows, and gave an acclaimed performance as Clytemnestra in the New York Shakespeare Festival's 1964 production of Electra, opposite Lee Grant, who played the title role. Stanley began her long career on Broadway as Maureen Stapleton's understudy in a 1965 revival of The Glass Menagerie. In 1966, she took over the role of Yente in Broadway's Fiddler On The Roof from Bea Arthur, leaving in 1971 (after more than 2,000 performances) to open in Neil Simon's The Prisoner of Second Avenue, directed by Mike Nichols. In 1972, she went on to tap dance in the Broadway production of The Secret Affairs Of Mildred Wild, and in 1981 went back to work for Neil Simon in the Broadway production of Fools.