Clara Peller

Clara Peller was born on Aug 04, 1902 in Tsarist Russia. Clara Peller's big-screen debut came with The Stuff directed by Larry Cohen in 1985.

Peller was born in Russia in 1902, one of eight or nine children born to Wolf Swerdlove (Swerdlov/Sverdlov; died 1949) and Yudis (aka "Julia") Tilkin (or Tilken; died 1952). The family emigrated to the United States when she was a child, settling in Chicago. In 1925, Clara Swerdlove married a local jeweler, William Peller. The couple had two children (a son, Leslie, and a daughter, Marlene) before divorcing some eight years later. Clara worked as a manicurist for thirty-five years at a local Chicago beauty salon. She moved to a North Shore apartment to be closer to her daughter after she retired. Peller was hired as a temporary manicurist for a television commercial set in a Chicago barbershop. The agency which produced the commercial was so impressed by her uniquely harsh foghorn voice and gruff, no-nonsense manner that they signed her up as an actress. Peller became a surprise celebrity in her early 80s with her delightfully cantankerous appearances in a series of extremely funny TV commercials for the fast food chain Wendy's in which she grumbled the memorable catchphrase "Where's the beef?" Peller capitalized on her newfound fame by making guest appearances as herself on a 1984 episode of "Saturday Night Live" and the pay-per-view cable TV