Randee Heller

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Randy M. "Randee" Heller (born June 10, 1947) is an American television and film actress.

She is best known for playing Alice in the 1970s sitcom Soap – one of the first characters in television history as a single mother, Lucille LaRusso in The Karate Kid, The Karate Kid Part III, and Cobra Kai.

Heller also had a starring role as Carol in the 1979 made-for-TV movie, Can You Hear the Laughter? The Story of Freddie Prinze.

More recently she was seen in a recurring role on the series Mad Men as Bert Cooper and Don Draper's elderly secretary Ida Blankenship and on TV show Wilfred as Ryan's neighbor Margot.

Early life

Heller was born in Brooklyn, New York City, and grew up in West Hempstead, New York, on Long Island, of Russian Jewish heritage. After initially attending Emerson College in Boston, she returned to Long Island to graduate in 1969 from Adelphi University, where she studied theater.

Personal life

Heller has been in a long-term relationship with TV writer-producer and former mime Robert Griffard and has two daughters, Sloane and Cody.

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Career

She appeared in an Off-Broadway production of Godspell the summer after graduation. She went on to perform Rizzo in the Broadway musical Grease. Heller went from New York to California in 1978 to pursue filmmaking.

Alice, one of the television's first lesbian characters, received mixed feedback, with most focusing on her acting but not at her appearance but rather at her character stereotyping. The Boston Herald said that the description shows how "the networks have generally depicted lesbians as either suicidal losers or sexual predators." Alice, for example, is "TV's first recurring lesbian character," noting that she "first attempts to leap off a bridge, then falls for Jodie, a befuddled gay man, and then runs away." Heller's newly perplexed hair was straightened at the network's insistence ahead of filming. "I went to kiss her in rehearsals and they said, 'No no no no... you can't do that," a woman says.

I said, 'But she’s my girlfriend!'

'No, no no no, we can't do that, we can't do that, we just can't do that.' So it was so delicate in those days that you couldn't really do your thing. "They wanted me to be a heterosexual homosexual." In a 2010 episode of Grey's Anatomy "Almost Grown," Heller will appear as a lesbian character again.

In the first and, as a sequel to good reviews, the actress gained the role of Lucille LaRusso, mother of Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio). "Heller's honest portrayal of a single parent struggling to raise an adolescent was one of the original film's real pleasures," Chicago Tribune reviewer Gene Siskel said. Ralph Macchio has also "argued for her [inclusion]. Those scenes with her were some of my favorites in the original – they had some genuine emotion – and I'm not sure why she isn't there." In the first Rocky film, Heller was also the voice that says, "Hey Rock, you're a bum."

Bulworth (1979), Bulworth (1998), Monster-in-Law (2005), and Crazylove (2005) were among other films released.

Carol in the 1979 television film Can You Hear the Laughter was starring Heller. Freddie Prinze's Biography. She has appeared in television shows including Murder, She Wrote, Less Than Perfect, ALF, Nip/Tuck, Judging Amy, Felicity, Drake & Josh, Night Court, Fame, and The White Shadow. Husbands, Wives & Lovers (1978), she was a regular on Husbands, Wives & Lovers, a one-season program (1978). Heller appeared in three short-lived sitcoms: Second Chance (1987), "Better Days (TV series)," and Mama Malone (1984). Can You Hear the Laughter in Her TV-movie appearances? Jonah and Freddie Prinze's Story (both 1979) was a comedy (both 1979). Heller appeared in Bert Cooper's and Don Draper's elderly secretary Ida Blankenship in season ten (2010) of AMC's Mad Men as Bert Cooper's and Don Draper's elderly secretary. She was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series by the Emmy Award for her role. In addition, she appeared on the American version of Wilfred in the 2010s as Ryan's neighbor Margot.

Lucille LaRusso has reprised the role of Lucille LaRusso in the Netflix series Cobra Kai since 2018.

Heller has appeared in such theater performances as Bermuda Avenue Triangle, The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, and Cabaret. One reviewer remarked that she did not know she was in Cabaret because:

In the stage performances of Streisand's Timeless concerts in 2000, Heller also played Barbra Streisand's mother. She played the part after being diagnosed with breast cancer the year before and undergoing a double mastectomy, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy.

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