Silver Fox Doris Roberts on Age, Beauty, and Being TV's Best Mom

A week long tribute to fabulous moms!

Everyone liked Raymond.

But everyone loved Doris Roberts who played his mother Marie Barone.

Actress Doris Roberts, a vibrant 80-year-old, divulges,  "Ray Romano performed at one of the White House galas where he spoke with the Obamas.

"The President and First Lady told him how much they love the show 'Everybody Loves Raymond.'"

"So Ray, my TV son, turned to the President of the Free World and whispered, 'You watch the show and still brought your mother-in-law to the White House? What were you thinking!'" says Roberts with a merry laugh as he putters around her Los Angeles kitchen on a weekday afternoon.

She starred as one of TV's most beloved mothers from 1996 to 2005. These days you can spot Roberts doing guest spots on "Grey's Anatomy" and "The Middle."

The character actress says that the idea of 80 isn't daunting to her.            

Of course, she's a gorgeous eight-oh. The woman with the always well coiffed snowy white tresses says that "true beauty starts in your brain."

"It's not a numbers game. It's not about just moisturizing!  It's an attitude game," she insists.  "I have friends in my age bracket who have settled and given up. There is no point in doing that in life. Then you're just sitting there waiting for the grim reaper. It doesn't get you anywhere, so stop putting out the welcome mat for the Reaper!"

Roberts believes that you don't sit at home.

"What is the alternative? I want to tell people to use their brains. Don't let your brain stagnate. There more you use it then the more it will work for you and the curious look on your face will make you look alive and breathtakingly beautiful."

RAYMOND FASHION IN THE USSR

As far as her TV alter ego, Roberts made a very attractive mama of Ray and his brother Robert.

She laughs about how the show has different versions overseas. In fact, this has led to the new documentary, "Exporting Raymond."

 "Did you know in Russia, they are doing their own version of 'Raymond?' Our executive producer talked to their costume designer about why he has the mother and daughter in law walking around their homes in elaborate evening gowns," she marvels. "He said, 'Have you ever seen our show? Debra and Marie didn't leave the house. They didn't wear gowns.'"

"The Russian costume designer said, 'This is what you don't know! If you don't dress up for your man, you lose your man!'" she says. "So I guess they're in gowns and beautiful cashmere sweaters cleaning the house.

"In Russia, they even thought the perfect actress to play Marie was the Russian version of Cher!"

WISHES THERE WERE MORE MOVIES FOR MID-LIFERS

 "There is a huge audience out there who want to see movies about people who are over 50," says the native of St. Louis. "If Baby Boomers and seniors respond then we'll prove our audience and Hollywood will have to respond."

She would also like to see later in life love stories.

"Why wouldn't you find someone to love at any age. Being alone is quite lonely. To put your head on a pillow at night and be alone in the house is very difficult for me," says Roberts whose husband William Goyen died in 1983.

"I have to make sure I have things to do in life," she says. "I'm occupied all day long. By the time I go to bed, I'm tired and want to go to sleep.

"Life is good at this age if you're alone and approach it that way," she says.

ADJUSTING YOUR ATTITUDE THROUGHOUT LOSS.

Roberts says that her beautiful smile was gone for a period of time after the loss of her beloved husband.

But she found a reason to find joy again. 

"After my husband died, I went out there and read books to children," she says. "I talked about him a lot and told people about the books he had written. When people asked me how I could get through losing a husband, I simply said, 'Take your mind off you.' There is a time for mourning and a time to stop and move on."

She says true beauty can return to your life if you help others.

"If your life isn't perfect then take your mind off what you're worrying about today and go help somebody else. Get off that chair. Turn off the TV. Put down the coffee cup," she says. "Get out into life," she says.

She says that you can also be tenacious at any age.

"If I know one thing about myself is that I don't give in. I don't give up. I don't settle. I don't take no for an answer.

"If you throw me out the door, I'm coming in the window," she says.

 Looking around her home, she has touchstones to her TV past.

"When the 'Raymond' show ended, the producers asked me what I wanted to bring home from the set," Roberts says. "I took home the sculpture."

Raymond fans know the sculpture was featured on a beloved episode where Marie makes a sculpture that she believes looks like a bird or a sailboat, but it really looks like a female derriere. She ends up donating it to her church.

Even though Marie could interfere, Roberts says she was still a perfect Mom.

"She loved those boys and protected them," she says. "I never played her thinking I was being mean or impossible. I did those scenes thinking I was protecting my sons from the world."

She stops reminiscing because she prefers to glance into the future.

"I say that it's OK to look back. Just don't stare," she says. 

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