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Alice Playten

Alice Playten built a career by moving easily between stage, screen and voice work, bringing an unusually flexible presence to each. Born in New York City on August 28, 1947, she began performing in 1959, when she played Marie’s young son in the Metropolitan Opera’s original production of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck. She was 11 years old. The stage remained a major part of Playten’s work. Her Broadway credits included Gypsy, Oliver!, Henry, Sweet Henry, Hello, Dolly!, Rumors, Seussical and Caroline, or Change. Off-Broadway, she appeared in productions ranging from Promenade and The Last Sweet Days of Isaac to National Lampoon’s Lemmings, Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You and Shlemiel the First. That range suggests the shape of her career: musical theatre, comedy and more eccentric material all had a place in it. Her film appearances included Ladybug Ladybug, Who Killed Mary What’s ’Er Name?, California Dreaming, Legend and I.Q. Legend gave Playten one of her most visually striking assignments. Under heavy makeup and prosthetics, she portrayed Blix, a major minion of the Lord of Darkness, while also dubbing the voice of Gump. Playing one character physically and supplying another character’s voice neatly captures her versatility. Playten’s voice credits also included Felix the Cat, Really Rosie, Heavy Metal, Doug, Doug’s 1st Movie and My Little Pony: The Movie. On television, she was a regular on the children’s series The Lost Saucer and That’s Cat, and made guest appearances on Frasier, Law & Order, Third Watch and As the World Turns. She also appeared in National Lampoon’s Disco Beaver from Outer Space during HBO’s early years. For many viewers, Playten was especially familiar from two 1969–1970 Alka-Seltzer commercials, playing a newlywed whose first meal for her husband is an enormous dumpling. It was one more memorable comic turn in a career that resisted being confined to a single medium.