Renée Taylor's Main TV Roles Show Character(s) The Nanny Sylvia Fine Lottery! Sylvia Berman The Simple Life (1998) Sylvia Fine Daddy Dearest Helen Mitch… Forever Fernwood Annabelle K…

Main Movie Roles 2009 - Life During Wartime 2006 - Ice Age 2: The Meltdown 2004 - Alfie 2003 - Lady Killers 2001 - Dr. Dolittle 2 1991 - All I Want For Christmas 1991 - Delirious 1972 - Last of the Red Hot Lovers 1971 - A New Leaf 1968 - The Detective 1968 - The Producers 1961 - The Errand Boy

BIOGRAPHY:

Renée Taylor (born Renée Wechsler; March 19, 1933) is an American actress, occasional writer and one-time director, best-known for playing Fran Drescher's outspoken mother, Sylvia Fine, on the TV series The Nanny.

Career

Born in the Bronx, New York, Taylor worked as a comedian in the early 1960s at the New York City nightclub Bon Soir. Her opening act was a then unknown Barbra Streisand. In 1968, Taylor played Eva Braun in the feature film The Producers.

Taylor and her husband Joseph Bologna co-wrote the Broadway hit comedy Lovers and Other Strangers, and received Oscar nominations for writing the 1970 film adaptation. In 1971, the couple co-wrote and starred in the film Made for Each Other. Their screenplay received a nomination for the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Comedy.

From 1992 to 1994 Taylor played the stereotypically overbearing Jewish mother of the lead character on the HBO series Dream On. Beginning in 1993, she began playing the overbearing mother of Fran, the title character on The Nanny. The two roles overlapped while both shows were on the air at the same time.

Taylor is most often recognized for her standout role in The Nanny, in which she played Sylvia, the overbearing mother of thirty-something Fran Fine (Fran Drescher), who is determined to live to see her daughter get married. Her character is intent on finding Fran a husband and has a passionate love for food. Taylor's husband, Joseph Bologna made a guest appearance on The Nanny as an egocentric actor named Allan Beck, who tormented Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy) and in the final season, Bologna again guest-starred on the series playing an admirer of Sylvia in the episode "Maternal Affairs".

In recent years, Taylor has guest-starred as Ted Mosby's neighbor, Mrs. Matsen on How I Met Your Mother. She also had a guest-starring role on the Disney show, Shake It Up! portraying a cranky, mean elderly woman in a retirement home, as well as a guest-starring role on the Nickelodeon show, Victorious as Robbie's cranky grandmother who needed Robbie's help with the internet. In addition to her numerous guest-starring appearances, Taylor has worked as a voice-actor as the character Mrs. Start in the animated feature film Ice Age: The Meltdown, and as Linda's mother Gloria in the animated FOX series Bob's Burgers.


TRIVIA:

• Born on the exact same date as actress 'Phyllis Newman (I)' (qv).
• After marrying in 1965, Taylor and Bologna co-wrote the Broadway hit comedy "Lovers and Other Strangers" and received Oscar nominations for writing the 1970 film adaptation. They wrote and costarred in the romantic comedy _Made for Each Other (1971)_ (qv) and won Emmys for writing the 1973 TV special "Acts of Love and Other Comedies." They also co-directed and co-starred in the film _It Had to Be You (1989)_ (qv), adapted from their play.
• Son is 'Gabriel Bologna' (qv).
• Received an honoray doctorate along with her husband from Hofstra University.