- Born
- Birth nameEdith M. McClurg
- Born in Kansas City, Missouri, McClurg began her performing career at age five with the Kansas City Rhythm Kids. She retired when the dance teacher was arrested on a morals charge for "dating" the tall and lissome, yet underage, star dancer in the troupe. That girl's big number culminated with a back-bend where Edie drank a soda upside down (of course).
She earned a Bachelor's degree in Speech Education and a Master of Science degree from Syracuse University and taught radio at the University of Missouri-Kansas City for eight years. There she re-entered the entertainment field as a DJ, newswoman and producer for the NPR affiliate KCUR-FM. Her proudest moment was portraying John Ehrlichman in Conversation 26 of the NPR national broadcast of the Nixon Tape Transcripts. Her career-long devotion to satirical improvisation included an impressive tenure with The Groundlings.
She went on to create original characters, performed on the short-lived talk show The David Letterman Show (1980): Mrs. Marv Mendenhall, Dot Duncan, Whirly June Pickens, Officer Jeanelle Archer, 105-year-old Edie, etc. Television has been a home to many of McClurg's characters -- on The Richard Pryor Show (1977); as Lucille Tarlek, wife of brash advertising salesman Herb Tarlek on WKRP in Cincinnati (1978); and Mrs. Poole, the ever-cheery and almost omnipresent next-door neighbor on The Hogan Family (1986). Her movie career growth paralleled her ten years with The Groundlings. Her first film was Brian De Palma's teen horror classic Carrie (1976). She did several John Hughes films, including Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987), She's Having a Baby (1988) and Curly Sue (1991). Offbeat cult favorites are Eating Raoul (1982), Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988), HBO's The Pee-Wee Herman Show (1981), and Martin Mull's The History of White People in America (1985).
In more mainstream films, she received a National Media Award for her portrayal of a mentally disabled woman in Bill: On His Own (1983) (which starred Mickey Rooney). She worked with Robert Redford (in A River Runs Through It (1992)), for Oliver Stone (in Natural Born Killers (1994)), for Diane Keaton (in Hanging Up (2000)), and was named Best Actress of the Chicago Alternative Film Festival for her portrayal of the mother of Ted Kaczynski ("The Unabomber").
More recent roles include the nosy lady on Fat Actress (2005), David Spade's nasty neighbor in Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (2003), Dana Carvey's mother in Sony Pictures' The Master of Disguise (2002), Jane Kaczmarek's friend on Malcolm in the Middle (2000), and guest-starring on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000), Providence (1999), 7th Heaven (1996), and Caroline in the City (1995). She had voice roles in such television series and feature films as The Little Mermaid (1989), The Rugrats Movie (1998), A Bug's Life (1998), and Cars (2006).
- IMDb mini biography by: Edie McClurg
- ParentsMac McClurgIrene McClurg
- RelativesBob McClurg(Sibling)Angelique Cabral(Cousin)
- Often plays characters with a cheery accent.
- Edie McClurg is of Scottish ancestry.
- She has a Bachelor's degree in Speech Education and a Master of Science degree from Syracuse University and taught radio at the University of Missouri-Kansas City for eight years. She was Operations Manager, News Anchor, Documentary and Fine Arts Producer for NPR affiliate KCUR-FM (Kansas City, Missouri) and National Public Radio 1966-1974.
- She played a secretary in both Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) and Back to School (1986) -- both school comedies opened on June 13, 1986.
- Her career-long devotion to satirical improvisation began with the Pitschel Players in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Then, she did a stint as one of the stand-up comediennes working for free at the Comedy Store. When she started, the other two women were Shirley V (What's Happening!! (1976)) and a protégé of Redd Foxx's who had woven bells into her braids.
- She was an original member of The Groundlings from 1975-1985. In the late 1980s, she studied with the Mother-Creator of all Improv Comedy, Viola Spolin and continues to improvise satiric comedy with the Spolin Players at the Second City Theatre in West Hollywood.
- She has appeared in three films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Carrie (1976), Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) and The Little Mermaid (1989).
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