Everybody Loves Doris

When you work in and around Hollywood, you are bound to bump into famous folks now and then. Doris Roberts, who became highly recognized for her role of Marie Barone on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, is one such person that I have unexpectedly seen at various events around town. However, a couple of months ago I learned that she was making a public appearance at a convention, so I prepared myself for meeting her this time.

It is hard to believe, but Everybody Loves Raymond filmed their last episode ten years ago. I don’t often get caught up in television shows, but that was one I enjoyed immensely. During that final season, I was inspired to create a caricature rendering of the cast in a Norman Rockwell setting.

 

Ray Romano
“Everybody Loves Raymond” in watercolor based on Norman Rockwell’s “Freedom from Want” oil painting.

 

The first time I bumped into Doris out in public was the week after I had painted this illustration. I found myself walking next to her down the hill after a Tony Bennett concert at the Hollywood Bowl. I was so startled to see her there, that the first words out of my mouth were, “Oh, hello! I was just painting you last week!” Her reaction was appropriately more startled by my strange greeting, and managed to walk much faster than I at that moment.

So, ten years later, I came up to her at this latest public function and presented her with a print of my painting. This time she seemed genuinely pleased and delighted. Whew!

 

Doris Roberts
Doris Roberts and Chad Frye

 

Well, hopefully next time there will be a chance to meet Brad Garrett who played Ray’s older brother Robert (barely seen in the lower right corner of the painting). A couple of years ago Brad voiced a character I designed for an animated production that has yet to be released. So in a way, I “worked with him,” though we have never met. That’s Hollywood for you.