Rae originated the role of Edna Garrett on Diff’rent Strokes in 1978 as the Drummond housekeeper before moving on to The Facts of Life a year later when Mrs. Garrett took the job as house mother for the Eastland School for Girls Girls Girls! Dowd played Aunt Lydia, another kind of house mother — this one a bit more sinister — in The Handmaid’s Tale to great acclaim and an Emmy in 2017.