Dena Dietrich

Dena Dietrich (born December 4, 1928) is an American actress.

Born in Pittsburgh, her television credits include recurring roles on The Practice (a 1976-1977 sitcom starring Danny Thomas), The Ropers, Life with Lucy, Santa Barbara, All My Children and Philly. She made guest appearances on Emergency!, Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers, Life Goes On, NYPD Blue, Murphy Brown, and The Golden Girls (as Dorothy's sister Gloria). She appeared in such films as The Wild Party (1975), Disney's The North Avenue Irregulars (1979) and the Mel Brooks film History of the World, Part I (1981). She appeared on Broadway in The Rimers of Eldritch, Here's Where I Belong, and The Prisoner of Second Avenue. Outside of film and television, Dietrich provided the voice of the grandmother narrator on the dark ride attraction Horizons at Epcot in Walt Disney World from 1983 until 1999.

Dietrich is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Mother Nature in Chiffon margarine 30-second commercials in the 1970s (1971–79). Dressed in a gown of white and adorned with a crown of daisies, Mother Nature is seen sampling what she believes is butter, straight from nature. An unseen narrator (Mason Adams) informs her "That's Chiffon Margarine, not butter." A perplexed Mother Nature replies that it would be impossible for it to be margarine, because it tastes too much like real butter; the narrator responds in delight that the margarine is indeed so close to real butter that it could fool even Mother Nature. Dietrich angrily responds "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature!" and commands nature to attack, such as through thunder and lighting or commanding an elephant to charge the camera. "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature!" eventually became Dietrich's trademark catchphrase. The melodic tagline for the ad reads: "If you think it's butter, but it's not...it's Chiffon."

External links

• Dena Dietrich on IMDb
• Dena Dietrich at the Internet Broadway Database
• As Mother Nature in Chiffon Margarine commercial, 1970s on YouTube