Dena Dietrich, Actress Who Played Mother Nature in Margarine Commercials, Dies at 91

[Dennis Donovan]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dena-dietrich-actress-who-played-mother-nature-in-margarine-commercials-dies-at-91



She starred on Broadway in 'The Prisoner of Second Avenue' and played Bea Arthur's sister on 'The Golden Girls.'

11:48 AM PST 11/23/2020 by Mike Barnes

Dena Dietrich, the veteran actress who gained pop-culture renown for her turn as a hoodwinked Mother Nature in a decade-long series of margarine commercials, has died. She was 91.

Dietrich died Saturday of natural causes at a health care facility in Los Angeles, her friend of more than 40 years, actress, composer and author Freddie Weber, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Dietrich also starred opposite Peter Falk and Lee Grant in the original 1971-73 Broadway production of The Prisoner of Second Avenue and played the sister of Bea Arthur's Dorothy on a 1991 episode of NBC's The Golden Girls.

-snip-

From 1971 until about 1981, the lanky Dietrich appeared as Mother Nature in commercials for Chiffon margarine, a substitute for butter that came in a soft tub and was made out of hydrogenated cottonseed oil.

Her pleasant character would taste the product and think it was real butter, only to be informed by the narrator that it wasn't. "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature," she would say with a scowl before unleashing Zeus-like thunder and lightning. The commercials closed with the melodic line, "If you think it's butter but it's not, it's Chiffon."

-/snip-

Cross gently, Mother Nature...

[bdtrppr6]

1. it's not nice to fool mother nature! n/t

[blogslut]

2. She was great!

What a deadpan look that women could deliver.

[SheltieLover]

3. RIP

[The Genealogist]

4. I remember those commercials

They were on TV when I was still just a little guy. My mother liked to scare me to death to get me to behave when I was little, and one thing that she used to scare me with was thurnderstorms. Naturally, I was PETRIFIED of those commercials, as they included a thunderclap. I can still remember when one came on, I'd run to my room and hide, so I wouldn't be able to hear the thunder.

[Beakybird]

5. If you're going to fool Mother Nature, there's little margarine for error.

[3catwoman3]

7. That is a pinboy3niner-worthy...

...pun.

[Efilroft Sul]

6. If Mother Nature dying isn't the most 2020 thing, I don't know what is.

[crickets]

8. I remember these commercials from childhood.

She made them memorable.

[msongs]

9. casey kassem narrating? nt

[Chiyo-chichi]

12. Not Casey Kasem... that was the late great voice actor Mason Adams.

Link to tweet

?s=20

[torius]

10. Weird, I just watched that

commercial a couple days ago on Youtube. Something had reminded me of it and I was trying to remember exactly how it went. It’s so much a part of our culture and I remember it from childhood. Truly classic TV and she’s an icon. RIP Mother Nature!