Tony-Nominated Actors

Tony Award-nominated stage, screen, television actress and comedian Denny Dillon was born on May 18, in Cleveland, Ohio. Her professional career began six weeks after moving to NYC in 1973, when she made her Broadway debut as Agnes in the highly anticipated revival of Gypsy starring Angela Lansbury. Other Broadway credits include The Skin of Our Teeth, Harold and Maude, Enchanted April, and the 1983 Gershwin musical: My One and Only starring Tommy Tune and Twiggy which garnered Dillon a Tony Award nomination (Best Featured Actress in a Musical).

In 1975 she and comedy partner Mark Hampton guest-starred on the third episode of the original Saturday Night Live performing their "Talent Night in the Convent". In 1980-81 she became a member of SNL's first replacement cast.

She scored a hit in her first motion picture, opposite John Travolta in an unforgettable cameo wiping his brow as Doreen in the 1977 iconic Saturday Night Fever. After that auspicious debut, Dillon went on to appear with Al Pacino in Arthur Hiller's Author! Author!, Sidney Lumet's Garbo Talks, Anthony Harvey's Grace Quigley opposite Katharine Hepburn and Betty Thomas' Only You. She voiced the character of Glyptodon in the first Ice Age film which was Oscar-nominated in 2003 for Best Animated Feature.

In 2006 she was part of Paul Greengrass' Oscar-nominated thriller, United 93 whose cast was awarded "best ensemble" by the Boston Critics Society. Recently she appeared in Academy Award winner Halle Berry's directorial debut Bruised as Crazy Esther, and is featured in the comedy Paint opposite Owen Wilson .

A familiar television face, Dillon won a CableACE award "Best Actress in a Comedy Series" for the hit HBO comedy series Dream On (1990-1996). Other television credits include: Women in Prison, Night Court, Designing Women, Nash Bridges, Louie, and Law & Order: SVU. She recently completed a guest stint on Darren Star's new TV comedy series for Netflix, Uncoupled starring Neil Patrick Harris.

Presently Denny is filming the fourth season of the supernatural-thriller television series created by M.Night Shayamalan: Servant on Apple TV+.

Anita Rose Morris was born on March 14, 1943 in Durham, North Carolina, to Eloise (Chappell), who worked in the theater, and James Badgett Morris, a doctor. Among her many roles, the most prominent film role was as Carol Dodsworth in Ruthless People (1986), and for her sensual performance as Carla in the musical "Nine" opposite Raul Julia. While nominated for a Best Featured Actress Tony Award as Carla, she lost to her co-star Liliane Montevecchi. Her signature number in "Nine" was "A Call from the Vatican", and she also sang "Simple", late in act two. She was scheduled to perform the former at the Tony Awards in 1982, but the television censors found her outfit too revealing. Her stage work began at the American Mime Theatre, and carried her to Broadway both for "Nine", "Jesus Christ Superstar", "Seesaw", "The Magic Show", "Sugar Babies" and "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas".

Morris' film work included The Hotel New Hampshire (1984), Absolute Beginners (1986) with David Bowie and James Fox, Ruthless People (1986) with Danny DeVito and Bette Midler, 18 Again! (1988) with George Burns and Charlie Schlatter, Bloodhounds of Broadway (1989) and Radioland Murders (1994), which was her final film role. During the 1980s and 1990s, she played guest roles in sitcoms and dramas, including Miami Vice (1984), Who's the Boss? (1984), Murder, She Wrote (1984), Cheers (1982), Matlock (1986), Melrose Place (1992), Tales from the Crypt (1989) and A Different World (1987). Anita Morris died at age 50 of ovarian cancer on March 2, 1994 in Los Angeles, California. She was interred at Maplewood Cemetery in Durham, North Carolina.

Anita was married to actor and director Grover Dale. Their son is actor James Badge Dale.

Multi-talented actress Lynne Thigpen was born Cherlynne Thigpen in Joliet, Illinois, on December 22, 1948. She performed in community theater and university theater productions while attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Following graduation, she taught high-school English for a short time, but her interest in acting eventually prevailed over teaching. Her desire to act professionally was further fueled by a strong set of vocal chops.

Moving to New York, Lynne subsequently won a singing role as part of the ragtag disciple ensemble in the hip, flower-powered musical "Godspell" in 1971. Two years later she transferred her role to film along with several other members of the original stage cast. Godspell (1973) opened a major door for the actress as a performer of boundless energy and vocal power, as exemplified by her rousing version of "O Bless the Lord My Soul."

Lynne continued on the 1970s musical stage with roles in "The Magic Show" and the blue-collar piece "Working," and in 1981 earned a Tony nomination for her powerhouse performance in "Tintypes." She eventually reasoned, however, that if she was to be taken seriously as a dramatic actress, she would need to refocus her energies. She then abandoned her tuneful ways and ventured assertively into films and TV.

During her 30-year career, Lynne went on to appear in nearly 40 movies and numerous television series, usually secondary in nature but alternately fiery and dignified in character. Lynne became a strong, set-jawed figure in social and urban drama as she managed to avoid the easy pitfalls of typecasting. Though most of her early film parts seemed small and insignificant, she continued to grow and gain a more assured footing while appearing in such popular features as Tootsie (1982), Sweet Liberty (1986), Hello Again (1987), and Running on Empty (1988).

Every now and then she was given a chance to shine, as with her volatile school parent in Lean on Me (1989). TV was a more palpable and productive medium for her with a stand-out recurring role as a judge on L.A. Law (1986) and a long-running part on the daytime soap All My Children (1970). She also committed herself to wholesome viewing for children, portraying the unnamed Chief on the PBS children's series Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? (1991) and Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego? (1996), earning four Emmy nominations in the process.

Throughout the years, Lynne remained a vital force on the stage. She won a Los Angeles Drama Critics award for her performance in August Wilson's "Fences," two off-Broadway Obies for Athol Fugard's "Boesman and Lena" (1992) and "Jar the Floor" (2000), and a Tony for "Best Supporting Actress" for her portrayal of a half-Black, half-Jewish feminist in "An American Daughter" (1997).

Other strong theater roles came with "A Month of Sundays" (1987) and as a spunky 101-year-old maiden woman in "Having Our Say." Lynne's dusky-voiced command was also utilized to narrate more than 20 socially relevant books on tape. Her last regular TV series role was as police clerk and computer expert Ella Farmer on The District (2000), a role she played until her sudden death.

Lynne was found unconscious at her home in Marina del Rey, California, by a friend. She died on March 12, 2003, age 54, of a cerebral hemorrhage. Her final film Anger Management (2003), which starred Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson, was released posthumously.

Priscilla Lopez was born on 26 February 1948 in The Bronx, New York, USA. She is an actress, known for Maid in Manhattan (2002), Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise (1987) and Sleeping with the Fishes (2013). She has been married to Vincent Fanuele since 1971. They have two children.

Carlin Elizabeth Glynn was born in Cleveland, Ohio. She attended Mirabeau B. Lamar High School in Houston, Texas. A life member of The Actors Studio, she debuted with amazing success as the Texas madam Mona Stangley in the original production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, for which she won the 1979 Tony Award as Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical. It had originally opened in New York Off-Broadway.

Glynn died on Thursday, July 13, 2023, aged 83. Her daughter, Mary Stuart Masterson posted the only notice of Glynn's passing:

"... my mother, Carlin Glynn Masterson, passed away. I was with her. I will always be grateful for those last moments, no matter how hard. Death is like birth in the oddest way. From my first breath to her last. This thread is as fragile as it is strong. She was the most graceful clumsy person you would ever meet. Strong, smart, silly, intuitive, kind, generous, passionate and a deep listener. She was devoted to my father and to the enormous circle of students and collaborators who were considered her chosen family. The stanza is from Seamus Heaney's poem, Clearances. The last photo is from her 80th birthday party, before the worst of dementia and cancer took their toll. She never lost her sense of joy or wonder. The last photo is from her 80th birthday party, before the worst of dementia and cancer took their toll. She never lost her sense of joy or wonder. The silly guy pictured with her is my dear brother @seppisigh. Rest in peace, mommy."

Millicent was aged 12 when she enrolled in the Italia Conti Stage School, where fellow pupils included Anthony Newley and Johnny Briggs. One of the first shows she was in was Blue For a Boy. A while later she spent three years on Broadway in The Boy Friend, in which she played every female part during the run. She then played the lead in the show during its London West End run. She joined the television show That Was The Week That Was in 1963 and was in it for about one-and-a-half years, which led to her own show Mainly Millicent. In 1964 she was in the film Nothing But The Best. Later she received two Tony Award nominations for work on Broadway: Side by Side by Sondheim (1977) and King of Hearts (1978).

She married singer Ronnie Carroll in 1959; they divorced in 1965. She then married actor Norman Eshley in 1969, divorcing in 1973. Her third marriage was to Marc Alexander in 1978.

Her trademark sass complemented by a distinctively adenoidal voice that could out-snarl Eartha Kitt and Fran Drescher put together, short (4'11"), round, and robust Nell Carter was one indomitable, in-your-face firecracker...and it made her a star. She was born Nell Ruth Hardy in 1948 in Birmingham, Alabama and raised there, one of nine children born to Horace and Edna Hardy. She grew up listening to the sounds of Dinah Washington and Elvis Presley and developed an early interest in singing that led to performances in various youth groups, her church choir, on local radio and even the gospel circuit. This was a positive distraction from the major traumas suffered during her early life which included the tragic death of her father, who was electrocuted when he accidentally stepped on a live power line, and a rape at gunpoint when she was a young teenager.

By age 19, Carter had relocated to New York where she found work singing in assorted niteries (Rainbow Room, Sweeney's), cafés, and musical revues to her liking. Studying at Bill Russell's School of Drama from 1970 to 1973, she made her Broadway debut in "Soon", a two-act musical show that lasted two days, and included such up-and-comers as Richard Gere, Peter Allen and Barry Bostwick. Other musical roles came with "Dude" (1972), "Be Kind to People Week" (1975) and "Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope" (1976). Receiving further training in London, Carter, who continued to gain both in girth and talent, made a star-making leap when she was cast alongside Armelia McQueen, Charlayne Woodard, André De Shields and Ken Page in the 1978 ensemble revue, "Ain't Misbehavin'", a musical catalogue of Fats Waller songs. The stellar quintet ran for nearly four years and the scene-stealing Carter, with such show-stopping songs as "Mean to Me" and "Cash for Your Trash", received a multitude of awards, including the Theatre World, Drama Desk, Obie and Tony. The show was taped for TV in 1982 for which Carter also nabbed the Emmy, and a Broadway revival with all five performers reunited was restaged in 1988. Later musical vehicles included her own feisty version of "Dolly Levi" in a 1991 African-American revival.

Tough and temperamental with a larger-than-life presence, Carter was invariably drawn toward the small screen and was initially featured in the daytime soap Ryan's Hope (1975) and The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo (1979), the latter perfectly cast as a police sergeant. Audiences took to her immediately and, eventually, she was handed her own vehicle as the loving but no-nonsense housekeeper of a white family in the NBC sitcom Gimme a Break! (1981). That show, which ran for six seasons, earned her two additional Emmy nominations for "Best Actress in a Comedy". Following this, she co-starred on You Take the Kids (1990), which fizzled, and the already established Hangin' with Mr. Cooper (1992) as Mark Curry's boss. Other spunky guest shots over time included such popular programs as Amen (1986), 227 (1985), Touched by an Angel (1994), Ally McBeal (1997) and Reba (2001), as well as quiz show participations on Match Game (1990) and To Tell the Truth (1990). Her work in films, which included a standout musical song ("White Boys") in Milos Forman's film adaptation of Hair (1979) and a touching role as Piper Laurie's housekeeper in The Grass Harp (1995), was never fully engaged. Carter was notoriously opinionated and audaciously candid as a person, a true survivor in her off-stage life, which was riddled with misfortune. She endured constant weight problems and severe alcohol/cocaine habits (recovered) as well as two divorces, a suicide attempt, several miscarriages, bankruptcy, the death of a brother from AIDS and multiple surgeries after suffering a near-fatal brain aneurysm in 1992. She battled diabetes for much of her adult life and once collapsed on stage during a 1997 performance of "Annie", in which she played the boisterous "Miss Hannigan". To comfort and complete herself, she studied and adopted Judaism as her religion. In 1989 and 1990, she adopted two infant sons, Joshua and Daniel, to her family, which included daughter Tracey.

After a history of ups and downs, the 54-year-old singer/actress collapsed and died alone on January 23, 2003, in her Beverly Hills home, subsequently found by her 13-year-old adopted son, Joshua. The cause of death was not immediately established at the time but it was later established that she had suffered a fatal heart attack, complicated by her diabetes and obesity. She was interred in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California. At the time of her death, she was in rehearsals for another musical stage lead, this time in the Long Beach, California revival of the hit musical "Raisin". The musical opened a few days later as scheduled with Carter's understudy taking over the role.

Charlayne Woodard is a dazzling force in American theater, captivating audiences with her exceptional talent as both an actress and playwright. With two Obie Awards under her belt, and nominations for the highly prestigious Tony and Drama Desk Awards, she has solidified her place as one of the most acclaimed performers of our time.

Her writing and performing skills shine in her four solo plays, Pretty Fire, Neat, In Real Life, and The Nightwatcher, which have received widespread critical acclaim. But Woodard's talent doesn't stop there - she has also written two multi-character plays, Flight and The Garden, further showcasing her versatility and range as a writer.

Woodard has also starred in original plays written by some of the biggest names in contemporary theater, including Susan-Lori Parks, Lynn Nottage, George C. Wolfe, Jeremy O. Harris, Brandon-Jacobs Jenkins, Athol Fugard, David Adjmi, and Ariel Dorfman. She's graced the silver screen as well, appearing in films directed by the likes of M. Night Shyamalan, Milos Foreman, Louis Malle, John Schlesinger, Nicolas Hytner, Wim Wenders, Robert Townsend, and John Sayles.

In addition to her stage and screen work, Woodard has also made an impact on television, appearing in numerous shows and even making a memorable performance on The Johnny Carson Show. She made history by becoming the first black actress to play Cinderella on TV or in film.

Charlayne Woodard's talent and versatility make her a true standout in the world of theater and beyond. With her fearless performances and captivating writing, she continues to captivate audiences and inspire the next generation of performers.

Imogene Coca is best remembered for playing opposite Sid Caesar in the live 90-minute Your Show of Shows (1950), which ran every Saturday night in regular season on NBC from February 1950 to June 1954. Their repertoire of comedy acts included the very memorable, hilarious, timeless and irreconcilable married couple Charlie and Doris Hickenlooper. Coca, however, did not begin her career in comedy. Her father, who was the conductor at a small Philadelphia opera house, and her mother, who performed in vaudeville, certainly instilled in her a desire to perform, but nurtured that desire with piano lessons, vocal training and dance. "I began as one of those horrible little children who sing with no voice," Coca said of her early training. By the time she was 13, she found herself tap dancing, somersaulting (along with various other acrobatics), dancing ballet and otherwise committed full-time as a serious vaudeville trouper. She left Philadelphia at 15 for New York, where she plied her trade as a dancer. She debuted in the chorus of "When You Smile." For the next 30 years music and dance were her staple. She could be found in the troupes of musical revues and doing her own acts in Manhattan clubs, such as the Rainbow Room, the Silver Slipper and Cafe Society Uptown. Her first husband, Robert Burton (who died in 1955), arranged music for many of her performances. Comedy and pantomime filtered into her routines quite by accident. In the production of "New Faces of 1934" Leonard Sillman, the choreographer for the show, loaned her his coat to keep her warm in what was a very cold theater. To augment what warmth she was getting from the oversized coat, Coca, along with three male dancers in the chorus began jumping up and down and improvising dance steps. Stillman noticed them and immediately recognized the comedic affect. He encouraged them to repeat the routine in the show, coat and all, which they did. Although coolly received by the audience at first, eventually the bit had the audience in stitches. Even the critics laughed, crediting Coca with great comedic talent. To hone her skills in what would become her forte in show business, Coca did the next four summers in the Poconos working with Danny Kaye, Carol Channing and the like.

It wasn't until near the end of WWII that she found much work in her new field and it wasn't until January 1949 that she was paired with Caesar in NBC's The Admiral Broadway Revue (1949), a show that aired only until that summer. In the fall of 1950 "Your Show of Shows" was launched on NBC. Coca won an Emmy the following year for her contributions to the program. She and Ceasar left the show in 1954 to pursue individual routes. They did not, however, match the success they enjoyed in "Your Show of Shows." Coca attempted a solo with The Imogene Coca Show (1954), but it lasted only one season. In 1958 Caesar and she paired again on Sid Caesar Invites You (1958); still, it was not the same. Only in 1967 did some of that same magic again occur when the original cast from "Your Show of Shows" reunited on CBS in _The Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris Special (1967) (TV)_; it won an Emmy for outstanding variety special.

Coca starred in two single-season sitcoms in the 1960s: NBC's 1963-64 Grindl (1963) and CBS' 1966-67 It's About Time (1966). In the 1970s she could be found visiting on Dick Cavett's talk show and making guest appearances on The Carol Burnett Show (1967). Thereafter, she appeared only sporadically on TV and in the movies--her most notable appearance was as Aunt Edna in National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) with Chevy Chase. Coca and Caesar re-visited some of their old sketches and put together the 1991 show "Together Again", which they toured throughout the country on stage. In her later years Coca and her second husband, actor King Donovan (who died in 1987), lived in Connecticut and Manhattan, staying close to her roots in vaudeville, theatre and "Your Show of Shows."

Ellen Greene was performing as a nightclub singer in several New York City clubs and treading the boards in New York City theater before her friend and mentor, filmmaker Paul Mazursky cast her in her first motion picture, Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976), she was awarded the part of Sarah, opposite Lenny Baker. Four years after she originated the role of Audrey, the lovably ditzy, golden-hearted, sweetest masochist in musical-comedy history in Howard Ashman's 1982 Off-Broadway play, The Little Shop of Horrors, the actress reprised the role in Frank Oz's film adaptation, Little Shop of Horrors (1986) (in which she starred opposite Rick Moranis and Steve Martin). Up to the present time, this is the actress's most talked-about and celebrated role.

A few years later, Greene starred in the American drama film Talk Radio (1988), she played the part of Ellen, opposite Eric Bogosian and Alec Baldwin. Aside from the actress's work in these two motion pictures, and ABC's fantasy mystery comedy-drama television series, Pushing Daisies (2007), in which she and Swoosie Kurtz play Lily and Vivian Charles, the agoraphobic sisters. Greene has also provided her talent to Law & Order (1990), The X-Files (1993), Heroes (2006), and The Young and the Restless (1973).

In July 2015, Greene brought back Audrey for a two-night revival of Little Shop of Horrors at New York City Center. She starred opposite Jake Gyllenhaal (who replaced Moranis). The revival received rave reviews, and according to The New York Times, when Greene made her entrance on stage, she received the kind of entrance applause you might imagine greeting the resurrection of Maria Callas at the Metropolitan Opera for a beyond-the-grave performance of "Norma."

Kelly Bishop was born on 28 February 1944 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA. She is an actress, known for Gilmore Girls (2000), Dirty Dancing (1987) and Wonder Boys (2000).

Dee Dee Bridgewater was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to Marion and Matthew Garrett. They relocated to Flint, Michigan, where Dee Dee lived until completing high school. She started out singing in school talent shows and with local jazz bands. During her first years in college she began singing with big bands, which lead to her work with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Band. At this time,she met and married trumpeter/composer Cecil Bridgewater. After touring the US, Europe, USSR and Japan, the couple had a child and divorced. Dee Dee then garnered the role of Glinda in the Broadway production of "The Wiz", earning a Tony Award. She then married director Gilbert Moses and moved to Los Angeles, where she did some acting and released several hit albums. She and Gilbert had a child. The couple moved to Virgina Beach, Virginia, where she starred in the soap "A Different World." Upon the couple's return to Los Angeles, Dee Dee got a leading role in the LA production of "Sophisticated Ladies" (starring Gregory Hines, Hinton Battle and others). Dee Dee remained with the company on the world tour. When Dee Dee separated from her second husband, she relocated to Paris, France, and rekindled her career as a jazz artist. Since her move to Europe, she has been internationally recognized as a creative force in the jazz world, honored with international awards and recently received two Grammy awards for her tribute album "Dear Ella." Dee Dee currently lives in France with her husband and has three children.

Finnish-American actress and dancer Taina Elisabeth Elg was born in 1930 in Helsinki but later her family moved and lived in and around Finland, including Turku. Taina's mother was a Russian immigrant, pianist Helena Doroumova, and her father was pianist Åke Elg (a.k.a. Åke Ludwig). Her home later became a target during the Finnish-Soviet wars between 1939 and 1944 and when it became part of the Soviet Union, the family was forced to leave. After WWII they evacuated from Viipuri and returned to Helsinki.

At a very young age Taina trained in both ballet and acting. When the family returned to Helsinki, Taina continued with her dance and acting training and eventually she was invited to join the Finnish National Ballet. She appeared in a few homeland movies as early as age 10 and found a couple of obscure film roles as a teenager, one in which she danced. Her international reputation began to grow when she joined the famed Sadler's Wells ballet dance company (The Royal Ballet) in London and then the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas, in Paris. A serious injury forced her to rethink her dancing career.

Fortunately, Elg was discovered in London by American film producer Edwin H. Knopf and, on the heels of the spectacular Hollywood success fellow Scandinavian Anita Ekberg was having, MGM decided to sign Elg to a customary seven-year Hollywood contract. She made her American debut for MGM with the secondary role of Elissa in the Lana Turner biblical costumer The Prodigal (1955). The following year MGM utilized her acting talents in their films Diane (1956), again starring Turner, and Gaby (1956) with Leslie Caron.

For the aforementioned work she was honored with a Golden Globe award for female "foreign newcomer". She was subsequently handed her best all-around opportunity by MGM to display her sublime dancing, sexy figure and comedic acting skills when asked to portray Angèle Ducros in Cole Porter's musical Les Girls (1957) opposite Gene Kelly and alongside fellow dazzlers Mitzi Gaynor and Kay Kendall. Receiving her second consecutive Golden Globe (tying with Kendall) for "Best Actress" in a musical, Les Girls (1957) also won the Golden Globe for "Best Picture - Musical" and an Oscar for its costume design.

More films came her way with Imitation General (1958) starring Glenn Ford and Red Buttons; the remake of the classic The 39 Steps (1959) opposite Kenneth More; the African adventure Watusi (1959) with George Montgomery and David Farrar and the war story Mission of Danger (1960), which was actually culled from a few TV episodes. None, however, could match the quality of Les Girls (1957). Elg's Hollywood film career went into a steep decline at this juncture and she began focusing on TV projects, foreign films and especially theatre roles. Appearing on stage in such 1960s productions as "Redhead," "Silk Stockings", "Irma La Douce", "West Side Story", "The Sound of Music", and "There's a Girl in My Soup", she finally made her Broadway debut with the musical "Look to the Lilies" in 1970, which was based on the Oscar-winning film Lilies of the Field (1963). She never found a strong footing again in films and has appeared in less than a handful since. Other than the 1961 Italian spectacle The Bacchantes (1961), she showed up in the musclebound Arnold Schwarzenegger's vehicle Hercules in New York (1970), Liebestraum (1991), and the Barbra Streisand feature The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996).

Her love for the stage was obvious and she remained as colorful than ever gracing such musicals as Sondheim's "A Little Night Music" (1973) in which she sang the haunting "Send in the Clowns." She also returned to Broadway in later years with the musicals "Where's Charley?", for which she earned a Tony nomination, "Nine" and "Cabaret". She appeared in the national tour of the musical "Titanic" in 1998-1999. On the non-musical stage she had strong roles in "Uncle Vanya", "I Hate Hamlet", "O Pioneers!", and, more recently, "Requiem for William" and Memory of a Summer" (both 2003).

In 2004, the actress received a special honor from her native Finland, when she was knight by the Order of the Lion of Finland. She is a naturalized American citizen. Jazz guitarist Raoul Björkenheim is Taina's son from her first marriage (1953-1958) to Carl "Poku" Björkenheim. In 1985, she married Rocco Caporale, an Italian educator and professor of sociology. The couple lived in New York City until his death in 2008.

Patricia Elliott was born on 21 July 1938 in Gunnison, Colorado, USA. She was an actress, known for One Life to Live (1968), St. Elsewhere (1982) and Empire (1984). She was married to Peter Heath. She died on 20 December 2015 in Manhattan, New York, USA.

One of stage, screen, radio and TV's most inimitable, irrepressible entertainers, Hermione Ferdinanda Gingold was born in London on December 9, 1897, the daughter of an upscale Austrian-Jewish financier and English homemaker. The blue-eyed blonde loved to perform in school plays and made her professional stage debut at age 11 as the Herald in "Pinkie and the Fairies."

She went on to appear at London's Savoy Theatre, at Christmastime in 1911, in the children's fantasy "Where the Raindow Ends," starring Reginald Owen and a cast of 45 children, including Gingold and a 12-year-old Noël Coward. Trained in the classics under actress/writer Rosina Filippi (1866-1930), Hermione played everything from the Page in "The Merry Wives of Windsor" to Jessica in "The Merchant of Venice" and Cassandra in "Troilus and Cressida." Stage parts in "Little Lord Fauntleroy" and "The Dippers" also came about during this period.

But it was Hermione's deep, guttural voice (as a result of vocal nodes) and flair for tart, quirky comedy that truly boosted her notoriety in the 1930's when she triumphed as a musical revue artist. Sharpening her talent and bawdy, razor-like wit in this venue throughout World War II, she graced such revues as "The Gate Revue," "Sweet and Low," "Sweet and Lower," "Sweet and Lowest," "Swinging the Gate" and "Rise Above It." In between she appeared in a few films, including a cleaning woman bit in the comedy thriller Someone at the Door (1936), and featured roles in the comedies Meet Mr. Penny (1938) and The Butler's Dilemma (1943).

After performances in such legit plays as "Fumed Oak" and "Fallen Angels" in 1949, and having completed character roles in the pictures The Pickwick Papers (1952), The Slasher (1953) and The Adventures of Sadie (1953), she transported herself to the States, making her New York bow with the popular revue "John Murray Anderson's Almanac," directed by Cyril Ritchard. She was an immediate success and went on to win the theatre's Donaldson Award for this performance. Settling now in America, she involved herself with a variety of theatre projects including "Sticks and Stones" (revue, 1956), "The Sleeping Prince (play) 1956), "Fallen Angels" (play, 1957-58), "First Impressions (play, 1959), "From A to Z (revue, 1960) and as Julia in "Abracadabra," (play, 1960), which she also wrote.

Beloved on Broadway, Hermione served as intriguing replacements for "Milk and Honey" (1962) and "Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad" (1963) and continued to make a mark with such plays as "Charley's Aunt." In 1973, the 75-year-old veteran was a featured highlight nostalgically warbling the exotic tune "Liaisons" in the Stephen Sondheim musical hit "A Little Night Music" as Madame Armfeldt. She later returned to Sondheim with the tribute show "Side by Side by Sondheim" in 1978.

Never one to be overlooked for long, she was invited to Hollywood and made a delightfully offbeat niche for herself in several eccentric comedies and plush musical films. Usually permitted to play her charming and haughty self, she was Golden Globe awarded playing the aging courtesan in Gigi (1958) while singing the nostalgic duet "I Remember It Well" with equally aging playboy Maurice Chevalier. Other movie roles would include a quirky cameo as a witch queen in the comedy Bell Book and Candle (1958); another quirky cameo in the second-rate Hitchcockian thriller The Naked Edge (1961); a Golden Globe nominated part as the mayor's wife in the musical The Music Man (1962); a comically villainous voice in the animated musical feature Gay Purr-ee (1962) starring the vocal talents of Judy Garland; a charming reunion with Chevalier in the lightweight comedy I'd Rather Be Rich (1964); a bizarre landlady in the romantic comedy Promise Her Anything (1966), which reunited her with her "Gigi" star Leslie Caron; a devious British Munster relative in Munster, Go Home! (1966); and her Madame Armfeldt recreation in a rather pallid film version of her stage hit A Little Night Music (1977). Her last film was as an aging actress who rubbed elbows with Garbo in the comedy-drama Garbo Talks (1984) starring Anne Bancroft.

Gingold was a delightfully ribald raconteur and became a very popular TV talk show guest, particularly on The Tonight Show Starring Jack Paar (1957). She was finishing up the last touches on her autobiography when she passed away in New York City of pneumonia and a heart ailment on May 24, 1987. Her autobiography, How to Grow Old Disgracefully, was published a year after her death (1988). It had been previously presented in installments -- The World Is Square (1946), My Own Unaided Work (1952) and Sirens Should Be Seen and Not Heard (1963). A one-of-a-kind entertainer if ever there was one.

Patsy Kelly was born Bridget Sarah Veronica Rose Kelly on January 12, 1910, in Brooklyn, New York. She began performing in vaudeville when she was just twelve years old. Patsy worked with comedian Frank Fay and starred in several Broadway shows. She was discovered by producer Hal Roach, who paired her with Thelma Todd in a series of comedy shorts. They became a popular onscreen team and made thirty-five films together including Top Flat (1935) and Done in Oil (1934). Although Patsy never became an A-list star she continued to work throughout the 1930s. She had supporting roles in Pigskin Parade (1936), Merrily We Live (1938), and Topper Returns (1941). Patsy was a lesbian and she was always open with the press about her sexuality. She had a long-term relationship with actress Wilma Cox. By the early 1940s Patsy was drinking heavily and making headlines for her erratic behavior. She decided to quit show business and moved to New York City. She started dating Tallulah Bankhead and worked as her secretary. Eventually, Patsy went back to acting and appeared on numerous television shows. She also had small roles in the films Rosemary's Baby (1968) and Freaky Friday (1976). Patsy won a Tony award in 1971 for her performance in No No Nanette. After suffering a stroke she moved into a nursing home. She died from pneumonia on September 24, 1981. Patsy is buried at Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York.

Before becoming known to millions as Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies (1962), Irene Ryan was already an established vaudeville, radio and movie actress, though not as famous prior to her television stint. She accompanied Bob Hope on his famous military tours and she was known as "the gal who makes Bob Hope laugh." After being cast as Granny, she became famous overnight. When the Hillbillies ended, she co-starred in the Broadway musical 'Pippin' with Ben Vereen. Unfortunately, despite wonderful reviews from critics, Ryan took ill, was discovered to have an inoperable brain tumor and died soon after at the age of 70.

Adrienne Jo Barbeau is an American actress and author best known for her roles on the sitcom Maude (1972) and in horror films, especially those directed by John Carpenter, with whom she was once married. She was born on June 11, 1945 in Sacramento, California, the daughter of an executive for Mobil Oil Company. Early on in her career, she starred in Someone's Watching Me! (1978), The Fog (1980) and Escape from New York (1981), all John Carpenter-related projects. She has collaborated with George A. Romero on occasion, such as Stephen King's anthology Creepshow (1982) and Two Evil Eyes (1990). Her work with other horror directors includes Wes Craven's superhero monster movie Swamp Thing (1982). During the 1990s, she became best known for providing the voice of Catwoman on Batman: The Animated Series (1992). She was the original tough-girl Betty Rizzo in the first Broadway production of "Grease". She is the author of the memoir "There Are Worse Things I Can Do" (2006), and the comedy romance vampire novels "Vampyres of Hollywood" (2008), "Love Bites" (2010) and "Make Me Dead" (2015).

After endless stage and television work, Barrie received a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress for her performance in the ground-breaking racial drama One Potato, Two Potato (1964), as Julie, a young, white mother who marries a black man after she and her daughter are abandoned by her husband. The following decade, Barrie portrayed Evelyn in Breaking Away (1979), which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and later, an Emmy nomination, when she reprised the role in the television series based on the film. Later in her career, Barrie also was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female for her performance as Sue Berlin, mother to the title character, Judy Berlin (1999).

Melba Moore has shot to super-stardom in the early 1970s with her debut album ("I Got Love"), that garnered her a 1971 Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, the following year, she also scored with a variety television show that co-starred Clifton Davis. Despite the show's being a modern success, the real-life couple fell victim through an ongoing self-destruction, hence, it was canceled. She was also in a crisis, when her career was put to an end, before it took a few years for her to comeback.

A four-time Grammy nominee and one-time Tony Award winner, prior to being a singer/actress, Melba Moore also made guest appearances on nearly all of the following shows: The David Frost Show (1969), Soul Train (1971), The Mike Douglas Show (1961), Dinah! (1974), The Dick Cavett Show (1968), 13 appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962), Captain Kangaroo (1955), The Tim Conway Show (1980), Solid Gold (1980), among many others.

Born Melba Hill in New York City, New York, to a very popular musical family, for the time being, she was raised in Harlem, New York, and until aged 9, despite of her parents divorce, her mother remarried Clement Moorman, who introduced her to several agents, while she was growing up, in Newark, New Jersey, where she had been raised, where she attended school, there. Prior to Melba's birth, her mother penned the #1 song "Don't Stop Now". Although her biological father encouraged her to pursue a career in music, it was actually her stepfather/saxophonist, Teddy Hill, who insisted on young Melba to do it, which successfully he did, which gave her a four decade career on the map. In her early years, she even learned how to play the piano. In 1967, after graduation from college, she won the original role of Dionne (when, unfortunately Donna Summer lost the role to her) in the musical, "Hair" with Ronnie Dyson and Diane Keaton, whom Moore replaced her in the role of Sheila. In 1970, she won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for her role in Purlie, which she portrayed Lutiebelle.

After her successful, short-lived series The Melba Moore-Clifton Davis Show (1972), she went on sabbatical, then, formed Hush Productions, her own production company. This was 1 year after, when in 1974, she signed with Buddah Records, before Epic Records, which allowed her to make some records over the next decade, and had some chart topping hits with "This Is It," which reached #2 on the U.S. dance charts, which was also popular in the UK, a country that was used for that song. Other chart toppers that Melba scored over the years of the Disco-R&B era were, "Lean On Me," "Make Me Believe In You," "You Stepped Into My Life," "Let's Stand Together," and "Take My Love." Unlike fellow singer Donna Summer, Moore struggled to garner some disco hits of the 1970s.

The 1980s saw Moore made a remarkable turn in her career, as she signed with Capitol Records, in 1982, and scored such hits as "Love's Comin' At Ya," which was a major song in the UK and in Europe. She also scored such songs with "Keepin' My Love Satisfied," "Love Me Right," "Read My Lips," (which she was nominated for her fourth Grammy) and "When You Love Me Like This." She also starred in her own series Melba (1986), for CBS, a show that was canceled unexpectedly. The following year, Moore also had a recurring role on the long-running Falcon Crest (1981), opposite Oscar Award-winner Jane Wyman. At the end of the decade, Moore also garnered some songs with, "Do You Really (Want My Love)," and "Lift Every Voice and Sing".

In the mid-1990s, Moore traveled with Gospel Play called, "Mama I'm Sorry" aside Gospel's sisterly duo of Erica and Tina Atkins that was Written and Produced by Michael Matthews.

With a total of 11 U.S. Top 10 Hits (singles and albums) on the Billboard Pop/R&B,Disco/Dance, Album charts combined, over a period of 40 years, Melba Moore is one of the most enduring artists of the 21st century.

By the late 1990s, Melba Moore was back where she felt she belonged, reaching out and entertaining America through her acting, her singing and her comedy.

In 2003, Moore was featured in the film, The Fighting Temptations (2003), which starred Cuba Gooding Jr. and Beyoncé. In 2007, she landed a role in the Broadway revival of Ain't Misbehavin'. In 2009, independent label, Breaking Records released the EP Book of Dreams, in which Moore was featured. That same year Moore told her life story on TV-One's Unsung and later that year released her first R&B album in nearly 20 years, a duet release with Phil Perry called, The Gift of Love.

Bonnie Franklin, of the freckled, fair-skinned, hazel-eyed, rosy-cheeked, carrot-haired variety, could light up a room with her buoyant, folksy personality, but she could be quite serious in a take-charge manner when it came to purposeful acting work. It took Norman Lear and a highly popular TV sitcom to finally make the 31-year-old performer a household star in the mid-1970s.

She was born Bonnie Gail Franklin in Santa Monica, California on January 6, 1944, the daughter of Samuel Benjamin, an investment banker, and Claire (née Hersch) Franklin, both of Jewish descent. She was thrust onto the stage at a very young age as a child tap dancer and became the protégé of consummate tapper Donald O'Connor. At age 9, she performed with O'Connor on NBC's The Colgate Comedy Hour (1950). A year later, she performed as one of the Cratchit daughters in the Shower of Stars (1954) TV version of "A Christmas Carol", starring Fredric March and Basil Rathbone as "Scrooge" and "Marley", respectively. The young girl then appeared, unbilled on film, playing sweet young things in the rural comedy, The Kettles in the Ozarks (1956), Alfred Hitchcock's The Wrong Man (1956) and the Sandra Dee/Troy Donahue's box office tearjerker, A Summer Place (1959).

At age 13, the family moved from Santa Monica to upper-scale Beverly Hills. Graduating from Beverly Hills High School in 1961, Bonnie studied at Smith College for a time where the freshman co-ed acted in an Amherst College production of "Good News". She then transferred to UCLA and majored in English. Following her studies, she returned to TV and appeared in lightweight comedies that welcomed her perky, pixie-like presence. These included mid-to-late 1960s episodes of Mr. Novak (1963), Gidget (1965), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964), Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1965) and The Munsters (1964). In 1967, she married Ronald Sossi, a playwright best-known for his writing/producing chores on the TV series, The Rat Patrol (1966). The marriage, however, was short-lived and ended in 1970.

It was on the musical stage that Bonnie found breakthrough success. Following diligent work in "Drat the Cat!" (1965), "Your Own Thing" (1968), "George M.!" (1969) and "Dames at Sea" (1969), she took her first Broadway curtain call in "Applause", the well-received 1970 musical version of All About Eve (1950), starring Lauren Bacall. Bonnie played a theater "gypsy", named "Bonnie", who sings and dances to the title song backed by her "band of gypsies". Bonnie won the Outer Critics and Theatre World awards and a 1970 Tony nomination for her effort here. She continued on the stage with prime roles in "A Thousand Clowns" (1971), the title role in "Peter Pan" (1973), and the revue "Oh, Coward!" (1975).

It wasn't until Bonnie was handed the prime role of "Ann Romano", a divorced mom raising two daughters (Mackenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli) on One Day at a Time (1975), did she become a viable star. Although her contagious cheerfulness and beaming smile was part of her value on the comedy show, Franklin desired to focus on taboo TV subjects such as divorce, birth control, sexual harassment and suicide, as well as getting laughs. While the program didn't match the ground-breaking importance or success of an All in the Family (1971), the show did command consistent and respectable ratings ("Top 20" for seven of its nine years) and lasted on CBS until 1984. Bonnie received one Emmy nomination and two Golden Globe nominations during the sitcom's run, and managed to find time to squeeze in a few other TV-movie projects as well -- A Guide for the Married Woman (1978), Breaking Up Is Hard to Do (1979), the title role in Portrait of a Rebel: The Remarkable Mrs. Sanger (1980) and Your Place... or Mine (1983). Bonnie also directed episodes of One Day at a Time (1975), Karen's Song (1987) Charles in Charge (1984) and The Munsters Today (1988).

Following the show's demise, Bonnie seemed to keep a lower profile on camera, focusing instead on theatre roles and in several humanitarian efforts. Sporadic guest roles on Burke's Law (1994) (revived), Almost Perfect (1995) and Touched by an Angel (1994) was highlighted by a 2005 TV reunion with her One Day at a Time (1975) TV family, The One Day at a Time Reunion (2005). Her return to the theatre, after a break of 14 years, included roles in a variety of plays: "Happy Birthday and Other Humiliations" (1987), "Annie Get Your Gun" (1988) (as "Annie Oakley"), "Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune" (1988), "Love and Guilt and the Meaning of Life" (1990), "Grace & Glorie" (1996), "All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" (1997), "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1999), "Same Time, Next Year" (2000), "Dancing at Lughnasa" (2003), "A Touch of the Poet" (2005), "A Delicate Balance" (2007) and as crotchety "Ouisar" in "Steel Magnolias" (2011). In addition, she put together and toured in her own cabaret act and appeared in nearly a dozen staged readings with Los Angeles' Classic and Contemporary American Playwrights.

Bonnie was a tireless activist for a variety of charities and civic-oriented issues, among them AIDS care and research and the Stroke Association of Southern California. More recently, Bonnie reunited with "One Day at a Time" daughter Valerie Bertinelli in a 2011 episode of Bertinelli's sitcom, Hot in Cleveland (2010), and, a year later, played a recurring nun in the daytime The Young and the Restless (1973).

In September of 2012, Bonnie was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died several months later on March 1, 2013. Her second husband of 29 years, TV/film producer Marvin Minoff, who produced Bonnie's TV movie, Portrait of a Rebel: The Remarkable Mrs. Sanger (1980), as well as the film, Patch Adams (1998), died in 2009.

Penny Fuller was born on 21 July 1937 in Durham, North Carolina, USA. She is an actress, known for All the President's Men (1976), My Over There (2023) and The Beverly Hillbillies (1993). She has been married to Dr. William Knox Kinlaw Jr. since 12 June 1977. They have one child.

Marian Mercer was born on 26 November 1935 in Akron, Ohio, USA. She was an actress, known for 9 to 5 (1980), Great Performances (1971) and Out on a Limb (1992). She was married to Patrick Hogan and Martin Cassidy. She died on 27 April 2011 in Newbury Park, California, USA.

Well-known Broadway actress Virginia Vestoff was born on December 9, 1939, in New York City, the daughter of vaudevillians. Her father was a Russian immigrant and mother a direct descent of composer/songwriter Stephen Foster (1826-1864). Both parents died young, leaving Virginia an orphan by age 9 and living with relatives. Her lonely, unhappy childhood led to an overactive imagination and a propensity toward the performing arts. At age 12 she won third prize on Ted Mack & the Original Amateur Hour (1948) and made her professional debut in the Children's Chorus of the New York City Opera Company. She later became a student at New York's High School of the Performing Arts.

She dropped out of school at age 15 to pursue her acting dream and eventually found herself touring with a dance company. This led to her professional stage debut in "The Boyfriend" in 1957. Virginia's versatility would shine in both legit classical plays and musicals, keeping her constantly employed throughout the 1960s and 1970s in such shows as "I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It On the Road," "The Threepenny Opera," "Camelot," "My Fair Lady," "The King and I," "The Misanthrope," "Love and Let Love," "Man With a Load of Mischief," and "A Doll's House" (understudying Liv Ullmann as Nora).

She took her first Broadway bow in the musical revue "From A to Z" in 1960. While performing in New York the role of Daisy in the Sherlock Holmes musical "Baker Street" in 1965, she met and subsequently married psychologist/writer Morty Lefkoe, president and founder of the Lefkoe Institute and creator of the Lefkoe Method, a psychological process. Her other Broadway performances include "Irma La Douce" (understudying the title role before taking it over), "Boccaccio," the rock musical "Via Galactica," and, most notably, her portrayal of Abigail Adams in the hit revolutionary-period musical "1776," for which she received a 1969 Tony Award nomination. She lost that year to Marian Mercer for "Promises, Promises."

In the late '60s, the lovely red-headed actress started to find replacement work on daytime soaps. From 1969 to 1970, she replaced a vacationing Elizabeth Hubbard as Dr. Althea Davis on The Doctors (1963). She then assumed the role of Samantha in the cult vampire soap Dark Shadows (1966) for four months, superseding a departing Kathryn Leigh Scott. She also wound up pitching household items on commercial TV on a fairly regular basis.

Virginia had little chance to make a strong showing in films, appearing in only three supporting roles during her lifetime. She played minor ladylike parts in Such Good Friends (1971) and Robert Altman's A Wedding (1978), but, in between, was fortunate enough to preserve her award-worthy role of Abigail Adams in the celluloid version of 1776 (1972), again opposite William Daniels as her husband, Continental Congress delegate John Adams. Virginia's scant prime-time TV appearances include episodes of The Quinns (1977) and Kojak (1973). Sadly, she died of cancer at the age of 42 on May 2, 1982, in her native New York City.

Alice Playten was born on 28 August 1947 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress and writer, known for Legend (1985), The Rebound (2009) and I.Q. (1994). She was married to Joshua White. She died on 25 June 2011 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.