Clara Peller

Peller was born in Russia in 1902, one of eight or nine children born to Wolf Swerdlove (Swerdlov/Sverdlov; died 1949) and Yudis (aka "Julia") Tilkin (or Tilken; died 1952). The family emigrated to the United States when she was a child, settling in Chicago. In 1925, Clara Swerdlove married a local jeweler, William Peller. The couple had two children (a son, Leslie, and a daughter, Marlene) before divorcing some eight years later. Clara worked as a manicurist for thirty-five years at a local Chicago beauty salon. She moved to a North Shore apartment to be closer to her daughter after she retired. Peller was hired as a temporary manicurist for a television commercial set in a Chicago barbershop. The agency which produced the commercial was so impressed by her uniquely harsh foghorn voice and gruff, no-nonsense manner that they signed her up as an actress. Peller became a surprise celebrity in her early 80s with her delightfully cantankerous appearances in a series of extremely funny TV