TV’s favorite mom Dorris Roberts never missed an opportunity to capture the attention of the audience with her versatile choice of roles throughout her long standing career. A regular at the Broadway during her early years, Dorris carved a niche for herself in the industry with her strong roles and unique personality.
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She became a household name when she played Marie Barone, the mother of the lead character Raymond Barone, in the CBS sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. Over the span of her career, Doris has won as many as five Emmy awards, apart from being nominated several times.
PERSONAL LIFE:
Dorris is a Southern belle who hailed from St.Louis, Missouri, born to Ann and Larry Green. Her biological father estranged the family after which her mother remarried and the family moved to New York. Dorris adopted her stepfather’s last name. Roberts was married to Michael Cannata in the year 1956. The marriage ended in 1962. She has a son, Michael Cannata Jr, from the marriage.
She remarried for the second time to William Goyen, a writer. The marriage lasted for twenty years until her death in 1983. She has three grandchildren through her son. Roberts died in April, 2016 because of a massive stroke. She was 90. Roberts was an eminent animal rights activist.
CAREER:
Roberts’ acting talent was discovered when she performed at a play in Kindergarten. Since then, she had always wanted to become an actress. It's rare for children to follow up on their childhood dreams, but Dorris persisted. She trained acting and theatre in The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City.
Roberts started her career in Broadway shows. She has performed in a lot of stage plays such as William Marchant's The Desk Set which she co-starred with Shirley Booth, Neil Simon's The Last of the Red Hot Lovers which she co-starred with James Coco and Linda Lavin and Terrence McNally's Bad Habits. She slowly ventured into mainstream acting and debuted in the TV series Studio One.
Her film debut was with the movie titled Something Wild. She appeared in various cult classics of the 1960’s and 1970’s such as A Lovely Way to Die, Little Murders, The Honeymoon Killers, to name a few. She also appeared in a lot of critically acclaimed TV shows such as Full House. However, her biggest break came when she was offered the role of the overtly narcissistic, snooty, nosy matriarch Marie Barone in the CBS sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond.
A self-professed animal activist, Roberts was a member of the Puppies behind bars which specializes in training dogs for the elderly. She was also a member of the Children with AIDS association. Roberts was also very passionate about cooking and co-wrote a book with Danelle Morton, titled “Are You Hungry, Dear? Life, Laughs, and Lasagna”. Following her death, the producer of Everybody loves Raymond refused to replace her part with anyone else as he felt she was too good to be replaced, something which the critics of the showed, agreed to as well.
Last Modified: Mar 7, 2020
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