Everybody loves Doris. Ray Romano recently reunited with his Everybody Loves Raymond cast to pay tribute to their late costar Doris Roberts. The Parenthood alum opened up about the gathering while attending the Keep It Clean Comedy Benefit in Hollywood on Thursday, April 21.
“I hadn’t seen these people in a while. It was sad to see them on that kind of an occasion, but she meant so much to all of us,” Romano, 58, told Entertainment Tonight, without further detail.
As previously reported, Roberts — who played Romano’s overbearing mother, Marie Barone, on the hit CBS sitcom for nine seasons from 1996 to 2005 — died at the age of 90 in her sleep in L.A. on Sunday, April 17. Roberts, who had more than 100 other TV and film credits to her name, is survived by her son, Michael Cannata Jr., his wife, Jane, and three grandchildren.
“People sometimes say, ‘Hey, she’s known for my show.’ [It] seems like I made her when in reality she made me. I was a nobody! … She was the MVP of that show. Everybody, everywhere I go, people tell me she was their favorite character,” Romano added on Thursday. “As much as she was this overbearing, intrusive mom [on Raymond], she was — in real life — just the opposite. She was just the most loving woman, and that’s what came through.”
Romano released a statement to Us Weekly immediately following the news of Roberts’ death. “Doris Roberts had an energy and a spirit that amazed me. She never stopped,” he told Us on Monday. “Whether working professionally or with her many charities, or just nurturing and mentoring a young, green comic trying to make it as an actor, she did it all with such a grand love for life and people and I will miss her dearly.”
Everybody Loves Raymond also starred Patricia Heaton as Debra Barone, Peter Boyle as Frank Barone, Brad Garrett as Robert Barone and real-life siblings Madylin Sweeten, Sullivan Sweeten and Sawyer Sweeten, who played Ray and Debra’s children. Sawyer passed away in April 2015 of an apparent suicide. Boyle, Roberts’ onscreen husband, died in December 2006.
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