ALICE DRUMMOND

Alice Drummond was the quintessential character actor. She was in over 50 movies and well over 100 TV shows. She was the woman the casting director sent for to fill an essential, but non-starring, role. You probably can’t remember her face, but if she turns up in a film you will immediately know you’ve seen her before. She worked well into her 80's and lived to be 88. Like most character actor careers, hers is chock full of mediocre to really bad films. But I was astonished by the number of really good films in her resume’.
Do you remember the frightened little librarian at the beginning of the original Ghostbusters (1983)? I didn’t either, but that was Ms. Drummond. Far superior to the 2016 remake, the original featured Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver. It gave us the memorable line “Who you gonna call?” as well as one of the friendliest looking monsters ever on the silver screen. 
Running On Empty (1988) features Christine Lahti and Judd Hirsch as peacenik parents on the run. Their bombing of a napalm factory went horribly wrong. A janitor who wasn’t supposed to be there was blinded and nearly killed by the blast and the police are after the perpetrators. The late River Phoenix has a major role as their son, a gifted pianist who gets tired of their clandestine lifestyle and wants out. Alice Drummond is just fine as Mrs. Powell, admittedly a very minor character. 
Awakenings (1990) is the heartbreaking story of the experimental treatment of catatonic patients with a new medication, L-Dopa. Robin Williams is the lead physician of the experiment and Robert De Niro is the first patient tested. At first he makes amazing progress and is practically back to normal. But then he gradually sinks back to his original catatonia. Alice Drummond is featured as one of the patients receiving the treatment. She and the other patients realize by watching De Niro regress that the same thing will happen to them. And it does. 
Pieces Of April (2003) stars Katie Holmes as a rather angry young woman living in a small New York apartment. She decides to make Thanksgiving dinner for her dysfunctional family in an effort at reunion. Patricia Clarkson plays her mother, terribly sick with breast cancer but who decides to attend the gathering anyway. Oliver Platt plays her father, a nice guy hoping for the best. And Alice Drummond plays Grandma Dottie, who is in fact quite dotty, sinking into dementia. The film has its funny moments as well as quite a few more serious ones. 
Doubt (2008) features blockbuster performances in the story of how a priest may or may not be a child molester (hence the title!) Meryl Streep plays the headmistress of the parochial school, Amy Adams plays a naive young nun teacher, Phillip Seymour Hoffman is the suspected priest and Viola Davis is the young boy’s mother. All give A+ performances and all four were nominated for Oscar but didn’t win. Alice Drummond has a nice turn as Sister Veronica. 
You can also catch Alice Drummond (but don’t blink) in Nobody’s Fool (1994), Joe Gould’s Secret (2000), and After Life (2009). 
All of the movies in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. All but Doubt are okay for all ages.