Peggy Pope (15 May 1929 - May 27 2020) was a well known familiar character actress through during 1970s through the 1990s. She appeared as Mrs. Thompson, whose class in the Pine Tree Day Care Center Mork worked with in Season 2's Looney Tunes and Morkie Melodies.
Biography[]
Margaret 'Peggy' Pope was born on May 15, 1929 in Montclair, New Jersey, USA. The younger daughter of Edward and Margaret Pope. Her father was a notable doctor in the area. Pope attended College High and Kimberly School in her native Montclair, New Jersey, then graduated from Smith College.
Pope's grandfather had a seat on the New York Stock Exchange and played poker with Diamond Jim Brady before losing his fortune in the Stock Market Crash of 1929. Peggy Pope's elder sister was Adeline Pope McConnell (1923-2010), a reporter, author, and activist, who, from March 1, 1986 to November 15, 1986, walked from Los Angeles to Washington D.C. as a member of the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament.
At one time, when Pope was unable to find steady acting work, she and fellow actress Renée Taylor (best known for playing Fran Drescher's Mother in The Nanny) began a furniture business, refinishing and selling items that they found along sidewalks
She was married to William Hawker (July 1954 - 1960) the marriage ending in divorce.
She died on May 27, 2020, aged 91, in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.
Career[]
Pope is likely best-remembered, if not by name, as "the office lush", and later, recovering alcoholic, Margaret Foster, in the 1980 movie 9 to 5. in 1980, the same year she made her Mork & Mindy appearance. Where her repeated line of 'Atta Girl!' became something she was associated with, to the point she named her Memoir "Atta Girl: Tales From a Life in the Trenches of Show Business" (iUniverse, 179pp.),
In said memoir, Pope described Hollywood legend, Ann Miller, to whose "Mame" Pope played Agnes Gooch, as "A living piece of celluloid accustomed to acting only when the camera was on her, [Miller] stood or sat politely, her whole body totally still, expressing nothing while I said my lines. Then she'd burst into glorious song and dance. It was the closest I ever came to being in a Busby Berkeley musical.".
Peggy got her first screen credit in The Trials of Mrs O'Brien (1966) and went on to appear in well known shows such as Bewitched (1968) Rhoda (1978), Barnaby Jones (1978), along with recurring appearances in Barney Miller (1977 - 1982) and recurring roles in Calucci's Department Store (1973) a CBS sitcom starring James Coco that lasted only a couple of months., Billy (1979) a CBS sitcom in which she was the mother of the title character played by Steve Guttenberg., and in the ABC sitcom Soap (1978-1979). Guest spots followed in Hart to Hart (1980 - 82), Eight Is Enough, Hill Street Blues (1985), The Paper Chase (1985), St Elsewhere (1986) The Golden Girls (1986), Too Close for Comfort (1986), Hope & Faith and Law & Order. In 2000 - 2001 she appeared in Law & Order, Law & Order SVU and Law and Order Criminal Intent.
Apart from 9 to 5, she also appeared as Elvira in the 1984 science fiction movie The Last Starfighter. A year later, she appeared in Once Bitten as Mark Kendall's mother. In 2008, she appeared as Sister Angela in Clark Gregg's Choke.(2008)
Pope won an Obie Award for Best Actress in 1968 for her performance in Muzeeka. She appeared in multiple theatrical performances, including Berthold Brecht's Three Penny Opera in the late 60s and early 70s. Her Broadway credits include Moonbirds (1959), The Long Dream (1960), Viva Madison Avenue! (1960), The Rose Tattoo (1966), Harvey (1970), The School for Wives (1971), Doctor Jazz (1975).