Early years

McCall debuted onstage at the Pittsburgh Playhouse in Strange Bedfellows in 1948. In the early 1950s, then still known as Mitzi Steiner, McCall had the Kiddie Castle program on KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.^[1] She received national attention in 1952 via an Associated Press story about a five-year-old Pittsburgh girl with a cleft palate who spoke her first words while watching the actress in a pantomime on television. Afterward, doctors "didn't know what to say. They held a special meeting, examined Claire, and told the happy parents that she was cured."^[2]

In 1953, she was featured on Studio 10, a program on KGTV in San Diego, California.^[3] She performed in productions at The Pittsburgh Playhouse before heading to Hollywood.^[4]

She appeared on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.^[5]: 913 and was also a series regular on such television series as Life Goes On and (with her husband) on Silk Stalkings. On animated series, she provided the voice of Auntie Marina in Snorks,^[5]: 986 the voice of Mother Goose in Mother Goose and Grimm, ^[5]: 718 the voice of Sylvia Jenkins in Free for All,^[5]: 365 and a variety of voices on The Paw Paws.^[5]: 819 She played Miriam Lerner on Alright Already.^[5] Other credits include guest appearances on The Twilight Zone, Maude, Dharma & Greg, and Chuck, as well as voice over work for many cartoons. In 1971, she was the voice of Penny on The Flintstones spin-off The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show.^[5]: 820 She was a panelist on the game show Match Game during its 1970s revival, and appeared with Charlie Brill on Tattletales.^{[citation needed]}

McCall and Brill

McCall and Charlie Brill appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964, the episode that featured the U.S. television debut of The Beatles. Their act can be seen on the DVD of the Beatles' appearances on the Sullivan show. They were interviewed in 2005 for the "Big Break" episode of Public Radio International radio program This American Life, regarding their Beatles-Sullivan experience, including a dressing room encounter with John Lennon.^[6]

In 1967, McCall and Brill had a comedy recording, From Our Point of View, released by ABC Records.^[7] Later that year, the duo signed with Congressional Records.^[8]

Shawlee and McCall

In the early 1960s, McCall (just over 5 feet) and actress Joan Shawlee (5'9") formed a night club act,^[9] first appearing together at the Club Robaire in Cleveland.^[10] In January 1961, syndicated newspaper columnist Dorothy Kilgallen reported that the team was "causing quite a stir", emphasizing while exaggerating the partners' discrepancy in height, "Joan being six feet, three inches tall and Mitzi four feet, 10 inches short".^[11]

In 2009, McCall had a supporting role as Bonnie in the film World's Greatest Dad.

Films

Television series

Video games