Slap & Tickle

Godspeed, Wendy…


Wendy Jo Sperber lost her battle with Cancer on Tuesday, November 29. For those of you unfamiliar with her work, she was a wonderful comedic actress that really should have been used more and should have been much more famous.

I first discovered her in “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” a brilliant comedy about Beatlemania and the Beatles first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. She was absolutely hysterical and just the thought of her performance as Rosie makes me smile.

She burst into more of the mainstream in “Bosom Buddies,” easily stealing scenes from Tom Hanks, Peter Scolari and Donna Dixon. The show was a cult hit, thanks to her brilliant comic timing.

If you still don’t know who she was, she played Michael J. Fox’s sister in the Back to the Future films. Those films present a perfect example of wasting talent: there she was, a great comedian, forced to stand on the sidelines, doing nothing.

The bigger waste was that she was never the great success that I thought she should be. She had the talent, but, for whatever reason, superstardom was not to be. I don’t know if that was by choice or by bad choices, I only know that we are better for having enjoyed her talents while we had the chance.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that she spent the last years of her life dedicated to the cause of Breast Cancer Support and started weSPARK, "A place to meet new friends, to exchange information, to explore new ways of coping and new possibilities for healing."

Thank you, Wendy. You brightened my life with your talent and compassion, for that I shall always be grateful.

For the rest of you, go off and watch “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” you won’t regret it.