Cassandra Danz

Cassandra Danz grew up in New York and attended C. W. Post College and Brooklyn College, where she majored in Theater Arts. Married to Walter Brett in the 1960s, the couple had one son, Sam. After a less than memorable career as a stand-up comedienne, Cassandra appeared in several Off-Broadway plays, most notably as Consuela in El Grande de Coca Cola at the Plaza Theater, and became a regular cast member at Chicago’s famed Second City Improvisational Theater in the company’s first-string troupe, where she worked with Bill Murray and Betty Thomas, among others. In the 1980s, Danz mixed her comedic skills with a love of gardening to become the television gardening expert Mrs. Greenthumbs. She appeared regularly on ABC’s ”Live with Regis and Kelly” and made occasional appearances on many other network and cable programs. Ms. Danz and her longtime collaborator, Mary Fulham, created the Mrs. Greenthumbs character in 1991 for An Evening with Mrs. Greenthumbs, a one-woman show presented at the Ancram Opera House in Ancram, NY. Three years later, Ms. Danz performed Mrs. Greenthumbs Plows Ahead in Manhattan. Producers of ”Live with Regis and Kathie Lee,” as the show was then called, saw the performance and asked her to be on the television show. A serious gardener, she wrote two books, Mrs. Greenthumbs: How I Turned a Boring Yard Into a Glorious Garden, and How You Can Too, and Mrs. Greenthumbs Plows Ahead.