Thread: RIP : Ellen Albertini Dow

Mount Carmel Remembers ‘Rapping Granny’ Actress Ellen Albertini Dow

Posted 10:42 pm, May 5, 2015

MOUNT CARMEL — Ellen Albertini Dow, an actress known best for her character roles in movies including “The Wedding Singer” and “Wedding Crashers,” passed away Monday at the age of 101.

In the movies, Dow may have been known best as the rapping granny in “The Wedding Singer,” but for her hometown community in Northumberland County, she meant a lot more. “Mrs. Dow came back and decided to set up this a little bit for her home town.”

At the Mount Carmel Public Library, former mayor Kevin Jones showed off the big screen memorabilia of Hollywood actress and Mount Carmel native Ellen Albertini Dow, all donated by Dow herself.

Dow was best known for her characters roles in movies such as “Wedding Crashers,” “Sister Act,” and of course “The Wedding Singer.” She gained huge fame in that movie for one scene in particular, doing a feisty rendition of “Rapper`s Delight”.

Dow passed away Monday at the age of 101.

“She definitely exemplified the coal region ethic of working to an older age,” said Jones. “We`re just very proud of her and again she represented us well and she never failed to mention that this is where she was from.”

Before moving on to a career that took her to the stage, television, and mega-hit movies, the then Ellen Rose Albertini grew up in a house that still stands in Mount Carmel and graduated from Mount Carmel High in 1931.

According to the former mayor, the actress`s father ran a family-owned car dealership out of a building on West 3rd Street. That building still bears the family name of “Albertini.”

And she never forgot her home, making return visits several times, including in June 2008, when the borough gave her a key to Mount Carmel. “She was just so excited about everything, I think, about her hometown reminded her of her family, of which she was really the last of her generation from the Albertini family,” said Jones.

When visiting, Dow would get dinner at Mattucci`s Restaurant, snapping pictures with fans, including the owner`s son.

Waitress Eylse Prezlomski says she was watching “The Wedding Singer” with her father one night and she learned that Dow had a neat connection to her own family history. “We were watching it and my dad just looked at me and said, ‘Your nana used to play with her when they were little.’ I was like, ‘Oh, that`s pretty awesome!’” said Prezlomski.

Dow’s nephew says his aunt will be laid to rest next Tuesday, next to her husband in a cemetery in Mount Carmel, following her wishes.

http://wnep.com/2015/05/05/ellen-alb...r-dead-at-101/

Dow’s version of “Rapper’s Delight” was featured on the double platinum soundtrack to The Wedding Singer.