- Born
- Birth nameVicki Ann Axelrad
- Nickname
- Mama
- Height5′ 6½″ (1.69 m)
- Famed actress, comedian, singer, and dancer Vicki Lawrence has appeared in television shows, and in nightclubs. Her career included shows with such popular actors as Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, and Tim Conway.
Lawrence was born Vicki Ann Axelrad in Inglewood, California, to Ann Alene (Loyd) and Howard Axelrad, a certified public accountant. Her interest in singing and dancing began at an early age. During high school, she was a cheerleader and voted Most Likely to Succeed by her class. From 1965 to 1967, Lawrence sang with the Young Americans musical group and appeared in The Young Americans, a film that won an Academy Award for Best Documentary.
Vicki Lawrence sealed her own fate as a famed actress and comedian by sending Carol Burnett a newspaper clipping showing their uncanny resemblance to each other, and asking if she could give some advice for a contest she was in called "Miss Fireball Contest" in California. Burnett, having a feeling about her, found her phone number and called Vicki. Burnett attended the event, hoping to find an entertainer who could play her kid sister on her variety show. Sure enough, Lawrence was chosen as the kid sister and was mentored by Ms Burnett and her career blossomed from there. In the fall of 1967, she made her debut on the first episode of The Carol Burnett Show. She spent 11 years with the show and earned one Emmy Award and five more nominations. In 1967, she also enrolled in UCLA to study theater arts. To enhance her singing career, she went to Vietnam to perform for U.S. troops with Johnny Grant.
Her music career peaked in 1973, when she was awarded a gold record for her internationally known hit "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia." In 1974, Lawrence married CBS makeup artist Al Schultz, with whom she has had two children. When the Carol Burnett Show ended, Vicki Lawrence starred in her own comedy show, Mama's Family, which also featured Dorothy Lyman, Ken Berry, Beverly Archer, and Betty White; Carol Burnett also frequently appeared on the show. After ending her sitcom, Lawrence delved into hosting television shows.
She became the first successful female game show host when she hosted Win, Lose or Draw; she also hosted her own talk show, appropriately titled Vicki!, which ran from 1992-1994. Vicki Lawrence's credits cannot be limited to television alone. Her stage credits include Carousel, Hello Dolly, Annie Get Your Gun, No, No, Nanette and My Fat Friend. In the '90s, she performed in I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road. Her autobiography, Vicki! The True Life Adventures of Miss Fireball, recounts her musical, stage, and television career. She spends most of her time doing motivational speeches for women's groups and charities.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous
- SpousesAl Schultz(November 16, 1974 - June 19, 2024) (his death, 2 children)Bobby Russell(June 29, 1972 - 1974) (divorced)
- Children
- ParentsAnn Alene LawrenceHoward Axelrad Lawrence
- RelativesJoni Lawrence(Sibling)
- Her character Mama
- Her resemblance to Carol Burnett.
- Husky resonant voice
- Carol Burnett's doppelgänger
- Natural red hair.
- She performed for troops in Vietnam and was a pin-up girl for the service men.
- Her recording of then husband Bobby Russell's song "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia" was number one on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart for two weeks in April of 1973, reached the Top 40 of Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart, and earned a Gold Record.
- She travels all over the country speaking to charity groups about her life, career and women's health. Her efforts to protect women's rights were recognized in 1988 when she was the first woman to be honored as "Person of the Year" by the Coalition of Labor Union Women. Recently Lawrence was invited to join The Board of Trustees for Miller Children's Hospital at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, one of only eight children's hospitals in the state. She also hosts the annual Walk for the Cure in her hometown, where all the proceeds go to breast and ovarian cancer research at Long Beach Memorial Center.
- Was Valedictorian of her high School Class.
- Her former husband, Bobby Russell, wrote the popular tunes, "Little Green Apples" and Bobby Goldsboro's "Honey."
- Everybody loves that character (Mama). I can go out on the streets and people will ask me 'Where's mama?' like if she's suppose to be with me.
- Life is much too serious to be taken seriously.
- [Who talked about her work with her idol, Carol Burnett]: Carol grew up on live television so that's the way we shot that show. We literally did two shows and you could set your clock by the schedule. It would take us an hour and a half to tape an hour show. There's no way that would happen nowadays. We stopped only for major costume changes or major set changes. You know, we used to tackle some pretty spectacular huge pieces. We'd get through those tapings and we rarely did pick-ups. For Carol, it was all about that audience. Keeping that audience happy, that 250-person audience that was in our studio. I think that's why everybody still watches that show and loves it so much because it was like being there live. It was really incredibly well-done. You look back at the staff, the costumes and the writing...it was just an incredible team.
- [on comedy that has been changed over the years]: We were sort of left to our own devices back then doing a live show. Now, you'd have eight gazillion suits down there telling us what to do. Telling you what you can and can't say...everything is so politically correct now. I think comedy has gotten cynical and dark. Sexual. It's hard to find for the kids those great old shows that you can sit and watch together. Where you can laugh at totally mindless shit like I did when I was young...like Green Acres or Lucy. Those shows are sort of timeless.
- [When asked if she was going back to do her Mama character in 2010, the character she created for 40 years]: No, I certainly did not. Mama was actually written for Carol as a one-time character with a guest star playing Eunice. But Eunice was the character that spoke to Carol, so she wanted to play Eunice and told the writers she wanted me to play Mama. Carol also chose to make the characters southern. The writers were worried that we would offend people in the south, but people saw themselves and people they knew in those characters and identified with them. We got so much positive feedback instead.
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