Actress Virginia Christine Grave (Virginia Feld) & Actor Fritz Feld Grave Mount Sinai Memorial Park Los Angeles California USA December 8, 2022.
Actress. She is best remembered as "Mrs Olson," of the Folger's Coffee television commercials of the 1960s and 1970s, who dispensed sage advise to next door neighbor young couples while serving them Folger's Coffee. Born Virginia Christine Kraft in Stanton, Iowa, to the family of Rudolf Kraft, a first generation German farm laborer, she began acting in radio while attending UCLA. She was initially trained for a career as a concert pianist and lyric soprano by her future husband, Fritz Feld, whom she married in 1940 shortly after her graduation from college. Raised in the German/Swedish community in Iowa, she also spoke four languages fluently, English, French, Swedish and German, all without an accent. She began her film career with Warner Brothers Studios in mostly uncredited supporting roles in the typical patriotic, military movies of World War II, such as "Mission to Moscow" (1943), "Action in the North Atlantic" (1943) and "Women at War" (1943). Ironically, her first movie role was as a Norwegian peasant girl, Miss Helga Olson, in "Edge of Darkness" (1943). Her fluency in foreign languages helped her in imitating foreign accents when her role required her to do so, and she was noted for a variety of European type accents. In 1951, she moved onto television for the first time, finding steady work in cameo type roles or guest actress in supporting roles, on such shows as "Science Fiction Theater," "The Lone Ranger," "The Thin Man" and a number of similar television shows in the 1950s to the 1970s, making her last appearance on television in a 1976 "Kojak" episode. She would also use her voice for occasional off-camera work, such as the cartoon series, "Scooby-Doo." She also appeared in small cameo roles in such remembered films as "High Noon" (1952) and "Judgment at Nuremberg" (1961). But she is most remembered for her motherly next-door neighbor role of Mrs Olson, in the Folger's Coffee commercials of the 1960s and 1970s. Due to her fame as the spokesperson for Folger's Coffee, her hometown of Stanton, Iowa, changed its city water tower to resemble a giant coffeepot, in her honor.
Fritz Feld was an Actor. He had a life-long career in show business, spanning from 1917 to 1989. His trademark was a popping sound which he made by bouncing the flat of his hand off his mouth.
