Behind every great TV family was a housekeeper or butler who kept the whole place running. From Alice and Hazel to Niles and Geoffrey, these 30 characters cooked, cleaned and delivered some of television’s best one-liners. How many of them do you remember?
Aunt Bee Taylor – The Andy Griffith Show
The very first episode of The Andy Griffith Show, “The New Housekeeper,” brought Aunt Bee to Mayberry to take care of Andy and Opie. She became famous for her fried chicken, even if her homemade pickles were a different story. Frances Bavier won an Emmy for the role in 1967.
Hazel Burke – Hazel
Shirley Booth played the spunky live-in maid who stayed one step ahead of her employers, the Baxters. The character started out as a cartoon in The Saturday Evening Post in 1943. Booth, who already had an Oscar, won two Emmys for the role.
Lurch – The Addams Family
The Addams Family’s towering butler answered the door with a deep, slow “You rang?” that fans still repeat today. He also sang a few words in the show’s famous theme song.
Uncle Charley O’Casey – My Three Sons
When William Frawley’s Bub left My Three Sons in 1965, William Demarest stepped in as his brother, Uncle Charley, a cello-playing former merchant sailor. The gruff but softhearted Charley kept the Douglas household running until the show ended in 1972. Demarest earned an Emmy nomination for the role.
Alfred Pennyworth – Batman
Alan Napier was the first actor cast in the 1966 Batman series, playing Bruce Wayne’s loyal butler. When his agent called about the part, Napier had to ask what Batman was, since he didn’t read comics. On the show, Alfred answered the Batphone and helped keep the Dynamic Duo’s secret.
Mr. French – Family Affair
Sebastian Cabot played Giles French, a proper English gentleman’s gentleman whose quiet bachelor household changed overnight when three orphaned kids moved in. French ended up as part butler, part nanny to Cissy and the twins, Buffy and Jody. The role earned Cabot an Emmy nomination in 1968.
Martha Grant – The Ghost & Mrs. Muir
Reta Shaw played Martha, the no-nonsense housekeeper who moved into Gull Cottage with widow Carolyn Muir and her two children. The cottage just happened to be haunted by the ghost of a sea captain. Shaw also had a small part in Mary Poppins as Mrs. Brill, the Banks family’s cook.
Mrs. Livingston – The Courtship of Eddie’s Father
Mrs. Livingston ran the Corbett home with quiet grace, looking after widower Tom and his young son, Eddie. She was played by Miyoshi Umeki, the first Asian performer to win an Academy Award for acting, for the 1957 film Sayonara.
Rose Buck – Upstairs, Downstairs
Rose was the loyal head house parlourmaid of the Bellamy home on London’s Eaton Place. Jean Marsh played her for the show’s entire run, and she also co-created the series with Eileen Atkins. Marsh won an Emmy for the role in 1975.
Mr. Hudson – Upstairs, Downstairs
Angus Hudson was the stern Scottish butler who kept the Bellamy servants in line for 60 episodes. Glasgow-born Gordon Jackson made the role his own, and he won an Emmy for it.
Florida Evans – Maude
Before she had her own show, Florida Evans was Maude Findlay’s no-nonsense housekeeper, and her sharp comebacks often put Maude in her place. Esther Rolle’s character proved so popular that she was spun off into Good Times in 1974.
Florence Johnston – The Jeffersons
Florence was the Jeffersons’ wisecracking maid, and she loved teasing George about his height and his hairline. Marla Gibbs earned five Emmy nominations for the role. Florence even got her own spin-off, Checking In, in 1981.
Benson DuBois – Soap
Benson was the sharp-tongued butler and cook for the wildly dysfunctional Tate family. Robert Guillaume won an Emmy for the part in 1979, and the character was so popular that he got his own spin-off, Benson. Guillaume won a second Emmy for that show in 1985.
Edna Garrett – Diff’rent Strokes
Mrs. Garrett was the Drummonds’ first housekeeper, looking after Mr. Drummond, his daughter Kimberly, and Arnold and Willis. Charlotte Rae played her for a season and a half before the character moved on to Eastland School in the spin-off The Facts of Life.
Max – Hart to Hart
Max was the Harts’ gravel-voiced butler, cook and chauffeur, and he introduced his bosses in the show’s opening, ending with “By the way, my name is Max.” He also helped Jonathan and Jennifer crack their cases. Lionel Stander won a Golden Globe for the role in 1982.
Adelaide Brubaker – Diff’rent Strokes
When Mrs. Garrett left for The Facts of Life, the Drummonds hired Adelaide Brubaker, an older and much crankier housekeeper. Nedra Volz, who often played spirited grandmothers, later popped up as postal worker Emma Tisdale on The Dukes of Hazzard.
Jonathan Higgins – Magnum, P.I.
Higgins was the majordomo of Robin’s Nest, the Hawaiian estate of the mysterious novelist Robin Masters, and he constantly butted heads with Magnum. His two Dobermans, Zeus and Apollo, kept Magnum on his toes. John Hillerman, who was actually American, won an Emmy for the role in 1987.
Nell Harper – Gimme a Break!
Nell promised her dying friend that she would look after the Kanisky family, and she became the housekeeper and second mother to the police chief’s three daughters. Nell Carter, who had already won a Tony for Ain’t Misbehavin’, earned two Emmy nominations for the role.
Tony Micelli – Who’s the Boss?
Tony flipped the usual script as a former baseball player who became the live-in housekeeper for advertising executive Angela Bower in Connecticut. Before acting, Tony Danza was a professional boxer, and a producer discovered him at a New York boxing gym.
Lynn Belvedere – Mr. Belvedere
The very proper English butler, who had once worked for Winston Churchill, had to adjust to life with the Owens family in suburban Pittsburgh. Each episode wrapped up with Mr. Belvedere writing about the day in his journal. Christopher Hewett starred opposite baseball announcer Bob Uecker.
Niles – The Nanny
Niles was the Sheffields’ butler and the household’s biggest snoop, listening in through keyholes and intercoms. His endless insults with C.C. Babcock turned into romance, and the two got married in the final season. Daniel Davis, who played the very British Niles, was born in Arkansas.
Daphne Moon – Frasier
Daphne came from Manchester, England, the only daughter in a family of nine children, to work as Martin Crane’s live-in housekeeper and physical therapist. Frasier’s brother Niles fell for her from the start, and after years of quiet longing, the two finally got married.
Rosario Salazar – Will & Grace
Karen Walker’s maid, Rosario, was the only person who could match her boss insult for insult. Shelley Morrison had just told her agent she didn’t want any more maid roles when the call for Will & Grace came in. Fans also know her as Sister Sixto from The Flying Nun.
Berta – Two and a Half Men
Charlie Harper’s outspoken housekeeper started as a recurring character and became a regular for 11 seasons. Conchata Ferrell appeared in 212 episodes as Berta and earned two Emmy nominations for the role.
Dorota Kishlovsky – Gossip Girl
Dorota was the Waldorf family’s Polish housekeeper, and she was also Blair Waldorf’s closest confidante on the Upper East Side. Zuzanna Szadkowski played the loyal, no-nonsense Dorota, who helped Blair out of more than a few schemes.
Mrs. Hughes – Downton Abbey
Elsie Hughes was Downton’s warm but no-nonsense housekeeper, and she looked after the younger servants like a mother. Phyllis Logan’s Mrs. Hughes was voted the best Downton Abbey character of all time in a Radio Times poll.
Mr. Bannister – The Gilded Age
Mr. Bannister is the van Rhijn family’s very proper English butler in Julian Fellowes’ HBO drama set in 1880s New York. Simon Jones, who plays him, originated the role of Arthur Dent in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and even played King George V in the 2019 Downton Abbey movie.
Alice Nelson – The Brady Bunch
Ann B. Davis played Alice, the housekeeper who kept the busy Brady household of six kids running. She sat right in the middle square of the show’s famous tic-tac-toe opening. Davis returned as Alice in several reunion movies and even published a Brady Bunch cookbook in 1994.
Geoffrey Butler – The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Geoffrey, the Banks family’s dry-witted British butler, had a comeback ready for every one of Will’s jokes. Joseph Marcell played him for all six seasons, from 1990 to 1996. Before Bel-Air, Marcell was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
