Dena Dietrich, a character actress who appeared on numerous TV shows and Broadway but was instantly recognizable as Mother Nature’s face from a popular long-running chiffon margarine ad campaign, died of natural causes on Saturday, November 21 in a Los Angeles health facility. She was 91 years old.
Her death was confirmed by SAG-AFTRA in a statement recognizing Dietrich’s service as a former member of the SAG National Board for nearly a decade.
With an impeccable delivery and a lightning-fast change of mood from matronly sweet to thundering anger, Dietrich first uttered what would become a classic commercial catchphrase: “It’s not nice to deceive Mother Nature!” Created by advertising agency D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles, Dietrich wore a see-through white dress and a daisy laurel to test what she sure was her all-natural butter. Told by a narrator that she actually ate chiffon margarine, the character responded sternly with the catchphrase, accompanied by a clap of thunder.
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The commercial ran for a decade and helped make Dietrich a very busy character actress on episodic television through the 1990s and into the new century. Her TV credits include The Mod Squad, Adams Rib, Karen, Welcome Back Kotter, The Ropers, Square Pegs, Living With Lucy, Age 30, It’s Garry Shandlings Show, The Golden Girls, Sisters, Murphy Brown and Mad About You.
Her later credits included a recurring role as judge Ellen Armstrong in Steven Bochco’s 2001 legal drama Philly. She also rerun the soaps All My Children and Santa Barbara.
On Broadway, Dietrich Pauline starred in the 1971 original production of Neil Simons The Prisoner of Second Avenue directed by Mike Nichols with Peter Falk and Lee Grant. She also appeared on the infamous flop Here’s Where I Belong, a musical based on John Steinbeck’s East of Eden that opened and closed on March 3, 1968.
Dietrich’s films include Julius Vrooder’s The Crazy World (1974), The Wild Party (1975) and Mel Brooks’ History of the World: Part I (1981), in which she played the maid’s competence and Madeline provided a memorable straight line to Kahns Empress nymphomaniac.
Dietrich left no survivors.
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