Elsa Raven, a character actress with a wide range of television and film credits, died on Monday at the age of 91 in Los Angeles.
Raven had small but memorable parts in several blockbuster movies like “Back to the Future,” where she played a woman trying to save the town's clock tower, and “Titanic,” where she played Ida Strauss, an elderly woman who refuses to get on a lifeboat to stay with her husband on the sinking ship.
Born Elsa Rabinowitz in Charleston, South Carolina, her first film role was in “The Honeymoon Killers” in 1970. She also played the realtor who sold the house “Amityville Horror,” reports Variety.
Throughout her career, Raven appeared on several television shows, from “ER” to “Everybody Loves Raymond.” She appeared in 39 episodes of “Days of Our Lives” in the 1990s, and played the owner of a mom and pop shoe repair store that has to declare bankruptcy after Kramer gets involved in the business in a 1994 episode of “Seinfeld.”
Her most notable television performances include the role of a maid named Inga on “Amen” between 1988 and 1990, as well as the protagonist’s mother on “Wiseguy,” which aired between 1987 and 1990.
Raven, who was an active member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, is survived by her sister-in-law and 15 nieces and nephews.
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