Nancy Paine Stoll (born August 25, 1947), better known as Mink Stole, is an American actress from Baltimore, Maryland. She began her career working for director John Waters, and has appeared in all of his feature films to date (a distinction shared only with Mary Vivian Pearce and Pat Moran). Because of her work with Waters, she is considered one of the Dreamlanders, Waters' ensemble of regular cast and crew members.

Biography

She is best known for her work in the films of close friend John Waters. Her film career began as a party guest in Waters' film Roman Candles. Since then, she appeared in most of his films up to and including 2004's A Dirty Shame, except for the early short films Hag in a Black Leather Jacket, Eat Your Makeup, and The Diane Linkletter Story.

She has appeared in a number of films and television shows, and wrote a column for the Baltimore City Paper titled "Think Mink" until mid-April 2006. She is the lead singer of Mink Stole and Her Wonderful Band, of which musicians Kristian Hoffman, George Baby Woods, and Brian Grillo have been members. The Baltimore incarnation of Mink Stole and Her Wonderful Band (2009-present) includes Scott Wallace Brown (piano, organ), Walker Teret (upright bass, guitar), Skizz Cyzyk (drums), and John Irvine (trumpet).

In April 2009, Mink connected with cult director Steve Balderson for Stuck!, an homage to film noir women in prison dramas. Co-starring Karen Black, Pleasant Gehman and Jane Wiedlin, Stuck! was filmed in Macon, Georgia. Stole played Esther, a religious inmate sentenced to death. She co-starred with Natasha Lyonne in Joshua Grannell's All About Evil.

She received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2010 Boston Underground Film Festival in Cambridge following the East Coast Premiere of Stuck! on March 27, 2010. In 2011 she successfully completed a Kickstarter fundraising project to finance her first CD, titled Do Re MiNK. The CD was released on May 23, 2013.

Mink Stole has never married and has no children. She currently lives in Baltimore.