Mindy Sterling (born July 11, 1953 in Paterson, New Jersey) is an American actress. Although she had worked in the industry for over 25 years, she only began to truly garner attention after playing Frau Farbissina, the diminutive and domineering Germanic cohort of Dr. Evil (Mike Myers), in 1997's Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery and its blockbuster sequels Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), and Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002).
The daughter of entertainers (her father was a singer and comedian and her mother a dancer), Sterling got her start in a local theater in Miami, following Shakespearean acting training that began at age 13. After an early 1970s move to Los Angeles to launch her professional career (because the weather was she landed a role on Stu Rosen's syndicated children's program Dusty's Treehouse, 1973), Sterling worked with Rosen before joining the renowned L.A.-based comedy troupe The Groundlings. Here the actress honed her skills with the improv-intensive group, playing alongside future notables like Jon Lovitz and Kathy Griffin. Soon Sterling became a teacher at Groundlings, and among her students were the future stars Keanu Reeves, Lisa Kudrow, and Saturday Night Live regulars Cheri Oteri and Chris Kattan. It was at The Groundlings that she first met up with Myers, when the then SNL member did some guest work with the troupe. Impressed with her abilities, Myers invited Sterling to audition for the first Austin Powers film. Following the summer success of Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Sterling appeared in Drop Dead Gorgeous (also 1999). She costarred as Iris Clark, the pageant-running sidekick of Kirstie Alley's former teen queen turned stage mom. Next she donned prosthetics to play one of the townspeople in Ron Howard's live-action adaptation of the Dr. Seuss holiday classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000).
