Early Simpsons seasons made great use of background characters, from Groundskeeper Willie to Comic Book Guy. Later on, these minor figures started to get their own full-fledged stories. (You wouldn't think you'd need the backstory of Cletus, the Slack-Jawed Yokel, but you got several.)

One character who never got that treatment is Lunchlady Doris. In fact, for a good decade, she didn't speak. (And this is a woman who once quipped, "more testicles means more iron!") What gives?

Doris was voiced by Doris Grau, but acting wasn't her main job. She was a script supervisor on a bunch of movies, as well as "The Tracy Ullman Show". From there, Grau made her way to "The Simpsons", and her distinctive gruff voice made its way to the lunchlady, named after her. (She also played another animated Doris, Jay Sherman's makeup artist, on "The Critic". Yes, this is twice we're mentioning Jay Sherman in a few profiles.) Unlike her namesake, the lunchlady was not Jewish, as she appeared in church scenes.

In 1995, Grau passed away, so her character was retired. The lunchlady would still appear in the background of scenes, but not speak. With time, another actress started to voice her, but to pay reverence to Grau, the character was no longer Doris. She was now Lunchlady Dora.

Are Doris and Dora identical twins? We wouldn't bet against that backstory...