Naomi Stevens


Naomi Ruth Stevens was an American character actress of film and television from the 1950s through the 1980s. She appeared in almost 100 roles over the years, usually depicting mothers, landladies, gossips, or neighbors.
Stevens began entertaining in vaudeville at age 2. She had expanded into radio, film, and theater by age 5. She appeared on a radio program on KNX in Los Angeles and was featured in Paramount Pictorials. Stevens attended the Grace Waugh Bowman School of Theatricals.
Her most frequent characterizations were Italian, Jewish, Latin, or East European, and usually with a comic touch. She appeared in many television series and in such feature films as Valley of the Dolls, Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell, and, most notably, in The Apartment as Mrs. Dreyfuss, the supportive "Jewish mother" type to Shirley MacLaine's character, Fran Kubelik. She portrayed Sgt. Bella Archer in the ABC crime drama Vegas.
On old-time radio, Stevens portrayed Daphne Royce on Brenthouse and Irene Barbour on One Man's Family.
Stevens died in January 2018 at the age of 92.

Partial filmography