Charita Bauer (December 20, 1922 – February 28, 1985) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
soap operaA soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on television or radio. The name "soap opera" stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble,...
radio and television
actressAn actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
.
Born in
NewarkBrick City redirects here. For the township in Ocean County, see Brick Township, New Jersey.Newark is the largest city in New Jersey, and the county seat of Essex County. Newark has a population of 281,402, making it the largest municipality in New Jersey and the 65th largest city in the U.S...
,
New JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, and to the east by the Hudson River, Upper New York Bay, the Kill Van Kull, Newark Bay, the Arthur Kill, Raritan Bay, Sandy Hook Bay, Westchester County, New York City, Long Island, and...
, she began her career at the age of eight as a model for clothing ads. She attended the Professional Children's School in New York and her first theater appearance was on Broadway in
Thunder on the Left (1933).
Radio
Bauer was active throughout the 1930s and 1940s on numerous radio dramas of the day, including
Let's PretendLet's Pretend, created and directed by Nila Mack , was a long-run CBS radio series for children.It had several different early formats and titles. Aunt Jymmie and Her Tots in Tottyville began October 27, 1928. Aunt Jymmie was the host of this Saturday morning children's program's whimsical tales of...
,
Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost PersonsMr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons was one of radio's longest running shows, airing , continuing well into the television era. It was produced by Frank and Anne Hummert...
.
The March of TimeThe March of Time is a newsreel series that was shown in movie theaters from 1935 to 1951. It was created by Time, Inc. executive Roy Edward Larsen, and was produced and written by Louis de Rochemont and his brother Richard de Rochemont for most of its 16-year run.-History:The March of Time was...
,
The FBI in Peace and WarThe FBI in Peace and War was a radio crime drama inspired by Frederick Lewis Collins' book, The FBI in Peace and War.The idea for the show came from Louis Pelletier who wrote many of the scripts. Among the show's other writers were Jack Finke, Ed Adamson and Collins...
,
SuspenseSuspense was a radio drama series broadcast on CBS from 1942 through 1962.One of the premier drama programs of the Golden Age of Radio, was subtitled "radio's outstanding theater of thrills," and focused on suspense thriller-type scripts, usually featuring leading Hollywood actors of the era...
and other programs.
She played headstrong and opinionated Bertha "Bert" Miller Bauer on the long-running soap
The Guiding Light on radio from 1950 to 1956 and on TV from 1952 to 1985. While her character was a spitfire in the earlier days, by the 1970s she had been relegated to the ceremonial role of town matriarch. To avoid confusion between her real life and her popular soap role, Charita asked the show's producers to name her TV son Michael after her own son Michael Crawford. (The show was aired live in the early days, and a mistake like addressing her TV son by an incorrect name would have been difficult to cover.)
Just before Thanksgiving 1983, complications from a blood clot forced her to have her leg amputated. When she returned to the show in March 1984, her character's life mirrored her own. After visiting Aunt Meta in New York, Bert returned to Springfield and began experiencing pain in her leg (which had been fitted with a prosthesis by this time). She ended up having
her leg amputated just as the actress who played her had. For the first time in decades, Bert had to depend upon others to wait on her hand and foot, resulting in one of the series' most memorable stories. (Bert, sitting in a wheelchair at Cedars Hospital, told Josh Lewis, who had been paralyzed recently and had given up hope, that life itself was a miracle and never to forget it.) In a moving scene, Bauer dropped a teacup. She tried to get it, but could not, and in sheer frustration, she burst into tears.
Bauer was no stranger to social issue storylines -- in 1962, she became the first actress on daytime television to tackle a real-life medical dilemma, as Bert was diagnosed with
uterine cancerThe term uterine cancer may refer to any of several different types of cancer which occur in the uterus, namely:*Uterine sarcomas: sarcomas of the myometrium, or muscular layer of the uterus, are most commonly leiomyosarcomas.*Endometrial cancer:...
. The storyline helped millions of women realize the importance of regular checkups and
pap smearThe Papanicolaou test is a screening test used in gynecology to detect premalignant and malignant processes in the ectocervix. Significant changes can be treated, thus preventing cervical cancer. The test was invented by and named after the prominent Greek doctor Georgios Papanikolaou...
screenings. Bauer received a record amount of mail from fans.
Bauer died of complications stemming from diabetes only weeks shy of her 35th anniversary on the show. She was 62 years old.
She received a posthumous Lifetime Contribution Daytime Emmy Award that summer, along with "Search for Tomorrow's"
Larry HainesLarry Haines, born Larry Hecht was an American actor. He was born in Mount Vernon, New York.Haines first became known in the 1930s as a voice actor on the radio crime series Gangbusters...
and
Mary StuartMary Stuart was an American actress and singer/songwriter.She was born as Mary Stuart Houchins in Miami, Florida and grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she graduated from Tulsa Central High School and attended the University of Tulsa before embarking on her professional career...
(who in the 1990s played Meta Bauer). Her character Bert died in March 1986, a full year after Bauer died.
External links