Friends, is it any surprise that IMDb thinks I know Harriet Sansom Harris from Licorice Pizza? I put it to you that it is not. It will not shock my regular readers to know that I still haven’t seen that movie, for some reason. That’s okay; it’s impossible to overthrow her from where I think of her first anyway. I saw that movie in the theatre in 1993, and it was spectacular. It’s a wealth of great performances, honestly; the cast in that movie is amazing and running on all cylinders. I’ve written about six of the adults from that movie already even before today’s and have two of the younger performers on my calendar. Friends, how could we use anything else?

Now, Harriet Sansom Harris has had a heck of a career even beyond Ellen Buckman, mother of the odious Amanda (Mercedes McNab, who might fill out an October one of these years). I actually watched Phantom Thread the other day to find out if she had a major role in it because I knew how certain of you would react if she did and I didn’t mention it. Her role is not major, but it’s significant, and there’s a scene where I might argue she’s doing the best acting in the entire picture, only to be swept along by the juggernaut that is Daniel Day-Lewis.

One of my consistent readers, meanwhile, upon working out that I was writing about her for today, has told me at least twice how powerful her cigarette monologue is on “Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fired.” This is season 3, episode 21 of Frasier—your occasional reminder that seasons were much longer once—wherein her recurring character, Bebe Glazer, is marrying a millionaire. Who wants her to quit smoking or else he won’t marry her. She gives an intensely sexual monologue about the desire she has for cigarettes that works on all the characters who here it, to the point that Daphne, an occasional smoker, needs a cigarette after.

Through the ‘90s, she managed to have both the Standard ‘90s TV Career and a strong list of “oh, my, I’d forgotten that show existed.” She was one of The Five Mrs. Buchanans. She did two episodes of Space: Above and Beyond. One of Sisters, one of Caroline in the City, two of Golden Years. On top of Ally McBeal and Law & Order and Murphy Brown. And, obviously, Frasier. She did less TV in the ‘00s, but she still managed to hit CSI and Six Feet Under and even American Dad! All while doing movies, both noteworthy and decidedly not.

Oh, and through all of that, she kept going on the stage. She was Vera to Christine Baranski’s Mame in the musical. She was Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie. She was the original Mrs. Vernon-Williams in the musical of Cry-Baby. In short, she is a spectacular actress who has done so much more than people remember. She is, honestly, in the same category as women such as Kathy Bates and Margo Martindale, women who are kind of plain and amazing actresses. When you remember she’s there, she becomes unforgettable.

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