Mindy Sterling

Mindy Sterling (born November 7, 1953) is an American actress.

While she has worked in the industry for over 25 years, she only began to truly garner attention after playing Frau Farbissina, the diminutive and domineering Germanic cohort of Dr. Evil (Mike Myers), in 1997's Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery and its blockbuster sequel Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999).

Blonde, with an open smile and a relatively soft-spoken demeanor, the she is quite unlike the screeching, sour-faced Farbissina, allowing her to live everyday life virtually unnoticed despite the massive popularity of the Austin Powers films. The daughter of entertainers (her father was a singer and comedian and her mother a dancer), Sterling got her start in local theater in Miami, following Shakespearean acting training that began at age 13. After an early 1970s move to Los Angeles to launch her professional career (choosing the West Coast over New York because the weather was more like her Miami home), she landed a role on Stu Rosen's syndicated children's program Dusty's Treehouse (1973). Sterling would go on to do further work with Rosen, before joining the renowned L.A.-based comedy troupe The Groundlings. Here the actress honed her skills with the improv intensive group, playing alongside future notables like Jon Lovitz and Kathy Griffin. Soon Sterling would become a teacher at Groundlings, and among her students were would-be stars like Keanu Reeves, Lisa Kudrow and Saturday Night Live regulars Cheri Oteri and Chris Kattan. It was at The Groundlings that she first met up with Myers, when the then "SNL" member did some guest work with the troupe. Impressed with her abilities, the writer-star invited Sterling to audition for the firstAustin Powers film. Following the summer success of Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Sterling could be seen in Drop Dead Gorgeous (also 1999), Michael Patrick Jann's satirical look at small town beauty contests. She co-starred as the pageant-running sidekick of Kirstie Alley's former teen queen turned stage mom. Next she would don prosthetics to play one of the townspeople in Ron Howard's live action adaptation of the Dr. Seuss holiday classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000).

Filmography

• 2006 Voiced the female Ox in Ice Age: The Meltdown

• 2002 Co-starred with Mike Myers in Austin Powers in Goldmember

• 2000 Appeared in Ron Howard's live action adaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, starring Jim Carrey; Verne Troyer also in the cast

• 1999 Reteamed with Green for the teen horror comedy Idle Hands

• 1999 Reprised role of Frau Farbissina, with a more central and provocative role, in the summer

hit sequel Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me; initial collaboration with actor Verne Troyer who played M

• 1999 Featured as Kirstie Alley's sidekick and the coordinator of a local teen beauty pageant in Michael Patrick Jann's satire Drop Dead Gorgeous

• 1997 Had featured role as Frau Farbissina, Dr Evil's calculating associate, in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery; also first collaboration with actor Seth Green who played Dr Evil's son Scott

• 1981 Had a bit part in The Devil and Max Devlin

• 1973 Landed a recurring role on the syndicated children's series Dusty's Treehouse (date approximate)

Trivia

• 1973 Moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career (date approximate)

• 1967 Enrolled by her father in private acting classes, training in Shakespeare at age 13 (date approximate)

• 1956 Moved from Paterson, New Jersey to Miami, Florida at age two (date approximate)

External links

• Mindy Sterling at IMDb