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Sweet-faced, gravel-voiced Brenda Vaccaro, 85, shot to stardom in 1969’s _Midnight Cowboy_, earning a Golden Globe nomination for most promising newcomer. In 1975's _Once Is Not

Enough_, she got an Oscar nomination for playing writer Jacqueline Susann's fictional takedown of Gloria Steinem (who refused to write the _Valley of the Dolls_ movie and panned her

books) as plastic surgery-loving Linda Riggs, a character critic Brian Herrera calls "a shocking, slutty, potty-mouthed cross between Helen Gurley Brown and Rhoda." Vaccaro lived

with Michael Douglas, partied with Jack Nicholson, played Faye Dunaway’s fellow wiseacre witch in _Supergirl_ (1984), Barbra Streisand’s bestie in _The Mirror Has Two Faces_ (1996) and Al

Pacino’s sister in 2010’s _You Don’t Know Jack_ — and his wife in Quentin Tarantino’s _Once Upon a Time in Hollywood_ (2019).  Now she’s got a role that really plucked her heartstrings: one

of four grandmas, or “nonnas,” who open an Italian restaurant in the Netflix comedy _Nonnas_ (airing May 9), also starring her fellow Oscar nominees Susan Sarandon, 78, Talia Shire, 79, and

Lorraine Bracco, 70. Vaccaro told AARP about her memories, her new movie and how fun it is to be an octogenarian still in the game. MAKING ‘NONNAS’ AWAKENED MEMORIES OF HER DAD, MARIO

VACCARO "He was born in Sicily. He graduated from NYU with honors. But it was the Depression, he had a wife with a baby — hello! And he couldn’t get a job. So he opened up a little

restaurant called Mario’s, in Dallas. People like Nat King Cole used to come. Because he stayed open late for these guys, they would bring their people that were on stage with them. They

would all come to Mario’s. "Jimmy Durante came, and he’s singing, 'How could you believe me when I said I loved you?' And I sang it with him — we held hands, and I was on top

of the table. He turned to my father and said, 'She’s going to be in show business.' We all knew where I was headed, and it wasn’t the restaurant business." HER ‘NONNAS’

CHARACTER, ANTONELLA, IS A WIDOW, LIKE HER MOM "Antonella has breakfast with a picture of her husband across from her. I can’t imagine doing that — I’d end up saying, 'But you’re

dead! What good are you?' My father died when my mother was 52; he was 54. Coronary thrombosis. In those days, they didn’t have Eliquis, right? That damn thing hits your heart and

you’re dead. He died with his hands on the table; his head was back with a slight smile on his face. Poor guy! He could have popped an Eliquis. I take Eliquis. My mother lived forever.

Antonella needs a new perspective, and she finds it in friendships — she finds her spirit. That’s my favorite word. Don’t lose your spirit! When I read the script, I was so moved. I thought,

'I wish my mother was alive just so she could read this.' "