Clara Peller

At 85 years old, Clara Peller has this physical status:

Clara Peller (August 4, 1902-August 11, 1987) was a British drama actress who appeared in the 1984 film "Where's the beef?" The Wendy's fast food restaurant chain chain's advertising campaign was developed by the Dancer Fitzgerald Sample advertising firm.

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Life and career

Born in Imperial Russia in 1902, one of eight or nine children born to Wolf Swerdlove (Swerdlove/Sverdlove), and Yudis (or Tilken; died 1952), young Clara spent the majority of her childhood in Chicago. When her father was being drafted for the second time, he left Russia, and they settled in Illinois. Clara married William Peller, a local jeweler, at the age of 20. They had a son (Leslie) and a daughter (Marlene), but they had to divorce later. She never remarried. She worked as a beautician at a Chicago beauty salon for 35 years before transferring to Marlene Necheles' suburban North Shore neighborhood to be near her daughter.

Peller was hired as a temporary manicurist in a Chicago barbershop at the age of 80. The agency later asked her to commit to the company as an actress, impressed by her no-nonsense demeanor and unorthodox voice. Despite being hard of hearing and suffering from emphysema, which limited her ability to write long lines of dialogue, Peller was quickly employed in a number of TV spot advertisements. In an advertisement for the new Massachusetts State Lottery game "Megabucks," she first caught attention as a comedic cleaning lady, and later in a series of commercials for Wendy's restaurant chain.

The Wendy's commercial portrayed a fictional fast-food competitor named "Big Bun," where three elderly women are served a massive hamburger bun with a minuscule hamburger patty. Although two of the ladies are arguing over the size of the bun, they are interrupted by an irascible Peller who looks around in vain for customer assistance while making the outraged request: "Where's the beef?" In scenes such as tumultuous drive-thru counters or in phone calls to a fast-food executive trying to relax on his yacht, the S.S. Big Bun, a crotchety Peller yelling her famous phrase.

Peller's "Where's the beef?"

Lines in the United States and Canada were snapped immediately. The diminutive octogenarian actress made the three-word phrase a cultural phenomenon and herself a cult celebrity. In 1985, Wendy's revenues increased by 31% to $945 million. Denny Lynch, Wendy's senior vice president for communications, said at the time that "with Clara, we accomplished as much in five weeks as we did in 14+1 years." In his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984, former Vice President Walter Mondale used the same argument against rival Senator Gary Hart.

Although hugely successful, Wendy's advertising campaign turned out to be short-lived. For the first Wendy's television commercial of the campaign in January 1984, Peller earned actor-scale compensation, $317.40 per day. Peller's fee for subsequent work as a Wendy's spokesperson was not disclosed, but she did not reveal that she made $30,000 from the first two retail sales and profits from product tie-in sales in an interview with People magazine. Wendy later reported that Peller had been paid $500,000 for her campaign, though Peller denied earning that much.

The actress was allowed to participate in any commercials for products, products, or services that did not directly compete with Wendy's hamburgers as a result of her Screen Actor Guild union membership. She then signed a Prego Pasta Plus spaghetti sauce advertisement. Peller examines Prego sauce in a Prego commercial before asking, "Where's the beef?"

declares, "I found it!

"I'm really glad to hear it." Wendy's boss, however, opted to resign her contract after the Prego commercial aired on television in 1985, alleging that the Prego commercial implied "that Clara obtained the beef at somewhere other than Wendy's restaurants." "Clara can find the beef only in one place, and that is Wendy's," Wendy's Denny Lynch said in announcing her dismissal. "I've made them millions, and they don't like me," Peller said.

"Where's the beef?" says the commentator. Wendy's Restaurants is now in their second year of operation. Vice President Lynch later revealed that consumer recognition of Wendy's brand did not recover for another five years, with the introduction of a new, amusing line of TV commercials starring Dave Thomas, the brand's founder.

Despite Wendy's setback, Peller maintained her newfound fame, giving numerous press interviews and several TV appearances. Once telling a bewildered Social Security worker (who was given three different ages by Peller) that she was "whoever will get me Social Security," she bemused interviewers and friends by saying they had no idea how old she was.

Peller made an uncredited cameo appearance on Saturday Night Live, which was hosted by 1972 Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern. She appeared in the 1985 Neal Israel comedy Moving Violations, which was also on sale. She appeared in Larry Cohen's The Stuff, a commercial starring Abe Vigoda. She had a cameo as a disgruntled motorist in Steven Spielberg's "Remote Control Man" episode. She appeared at WrestleMania 2 in Rosemont, Chicago, on April 7, 1986, where she was the guest timekeeper for the 20-man invitational over-the-top-rope championship involving both wrestlers and NFL stars from the 1970s and 1980s.

Peller died in Chicago on August 11, 1987, one week after her 85th birthday, from congestive heart disease. She is buried at Waldheim Jewish Cemetery.

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