Elaine Stritch

At 89 years old, Elaine Stritch has this physical status:

Elaine Stritch (February 2, 1925-2014) was an American actress and singer best known for her appearances on Broadway.

She made her professional debut in 1944 and appeared in numerous stage plays, musicals, feature films, and television series.

In 1995, she was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. Stritch made her Broadway debut in the 1946 comedy Loco (1956); the No.l Coward musical Sail Away (1962); and the Edward Albee Company (1971), which included her appearance of the song "The Ladies Who Lunch"; and finally, for the revival of the Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance (1996).

Elaine Stritch at Liberty, a one-woman troupe, was named Best Special Theatrical Event by the 2002 Tony Awards. Stritch immigrated to London in the 1970s and appeared in many West End productions, including Tennessee Williams' Small Craft Warnings (1973) and Neil Simon's The Gingerbread Lady (1974).

She also appeared in the ITV sitcom Two's Company (1975–79), which earned her a 1979 BAFTA TV Award nomination.

In 1993, she received an Emmy Award for her guest appearance on Law & Order, as well as another for her 2004 television documentary about her one-woman show.

She appeared on NBC's sitcom 30 Rock from 2007 to 2012, winning her her third Emmy Award in 2007.

Early life

Stritch was born in Detroit, Michigan, the youngest daughter of Mildred (née Jobe; 1893–1987), a homemaker, and George Joseph Stritch (1892–1987), an executive with B.F. Goodrich. Georgene and Sally, her two older sisters, were in the same family. Her Catholic family was well off. Her father was of Irish descent, while her mother had Welsh roots. Cardinal Samuel Stritch, the Archbishop of Chicago from 1940 to 1958, was one of her cousins. Erwin Piscator, Barbara Brando and Bea Arthur attended the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York City.

Personal life

Strich was married to actor John Bay from 1973 to his death in 1982. He was a member of the Bay's English Muffins company, and Stritch gave English muffins as gifts to neighbors. "She still sends me English muffins every Christmas," Said John Kenley. Stritch and her husband worked at the Savoy Hotel when she was based in London.

Liz Smith, a gossip columnist, with whom she shared a birthday (February 2).

Stritch announced in March 2013 that she was leaving New York and relocating to Birmingham, Michigan, close to where she grew up.

Stritch was open about her alcohol use. At 14 years old, she took her first drink and began using it as a crutch before beginning to face her stage fright and insecurities. Her drinking worsened after Bay's death, and she sought support after having problems with alcoholism's consequences, including the onset of diabetes. Elaine Stritch at Liberty addresses the issue in detail.

Stritch died in her sleep at her Birmingham, Michigan home on July 17, 2014. She had diabetes and stomach cancer. Cancer was not cited as a direct cause of her death at the time of her death, only three months after having been hospitalized for the disease. Her body was buried in Memorial Park Cemetery, Cook County, Illinois.

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Career

Stritch made her stage debut in 1944. However, her Broadway debut was in 1946, directed by Jed Harris, followed by Made in Heaven (as a replacement) and then Angel in the Wings (1947), a revue in which she performed comedy sketches and the song "Civilization."

Stritch understudied Ethel Merman for Call Me Madam and appeared in the 1952 revival of Pal Joey, singing "Zip." Stritch later appeared on Call Me Madam's national tour and appeared in a supporting role in William Inge's original Broadway production Bus Stop. Maggie Harris played the leading role in the 1958 musical Goldilocks.

In 1961, she appeared in No.l Coward's Sail Away on Broadway. Stritch was first on stage in a "relatively minor role" and was only recognized for the name and had virtually all of the top songs when it was determined that the leading lady, although admirable, was too operatic for a musical comedy. Coward was "unsure" of one of the leads, opera singer Jean Fenn's, during out-of-town tryouts in Boston.

"What if...we just ended [Fenn's] job and left everything to Stritch?" Joe Layton wondered. The display was very old-fashioned, and Elaine Stritch was the thing that was working. She [was] a natural performer] every time she came on stage." "Sail Away" the reconstructed 'Sail Away' opened on Broadway on October 3, 1961, with Stritch saying "must be the show of her career," according to Howard Taubman of The New York Times.

Ruth Sherwood appeared in the musical Wonderful Town at New York's City Center in 1966 and appeared in a Private Lives revival in 1968.

Stritch came to be known as a singer with a brassy, strong voice. Joanne was the first performer cast in Stephen Sondheim's Company (1970) on Broadway. Stritch, who performed in New York for over a decade, migrated to London, where she appeared in the Company's West End production in 1972. Stritch appeared in such musicals as No, No. Nanette, The King and I, I Married an Angel, and in Mame as both Vera Charles (opposite Janet Blair) and Mame Dennis.

In The Growing Paynes (1949) and the Goodyear Television Playhouse (1953-55), Strich's first television appearances were in The Growing Paynes (1949) and the Goodyear Television Playhouse (1953–55). In 1954, she appeared on episodes of The Ed Sullivan Show. Jackie Gleason, Art Carney, and Pert Kelton were the first and original Trixie Norton in a Honeymooners sketch. The character was originally a burlesque dancer, but the role was rewritten and recast after only one episode, with Joyce Randolph's more wholesome appearance portraying the role as a housewife.

Several dramatic programs in the 1950s and 1960s, including Studio One, were among Stritch's other television appearances. Stritch appeared in writer Ruth Sherwood's CBS sitcom My Sister Eileen, opposite Shirley Bonne as her younger sister, Eileen Sherwood, an aspiring actress, in the 1960 television season. In Greenwich Village, the sisters, who are natives of Ohio, live in a brownstone apartment. The one-season special on ABC and Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall aired opposite Hawaiian Eye on ABC and Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall on NBC.

Stritch appeared in the British LWT comedy series Two's Company opposite Donald Sinden in 1975. Dorothy McNab, an American writer who lived in London, was known for her lurid and sensationalist thriller books. Sinden played Robert, her English butler who disapproved of virtually everything Dorothy did and that the series derived its comedy from Robert's inevitable cultural clashed with Dorothy's devil-may-care New York outlook. The Two's Company was extremely well received in the United Kingdom and ran for four series until 1979. Both Stritch and Sinden were nominated for a BAFTA TV Award for Two's Company in 1979, losing out to Ronnie Barker.

Stritch appeared in another LWT series in 1980 (the British version of Maude), not to be confused with the 1980 American film The Greatest Unfair (the British version of Maude) starring Bill Hooper and Sam Griffiths. Stritch herself adapted the original American scripts for just one of the fourteen episodes (Griffiths handled the remaining one).

Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected was among Strich's British television appearances. Although she appeared in many films, perhaps her most memorable appearance was in the story "William and Mary" in which she played the widow of a man who has cheated death by having his brain preserved. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl appeared on BBC 1's children's series Jackanory, reading, among other things.

Mrs. DeGroot, a vinegary nanny on The Edge of Night, became a regular on the short-lived The Ellen Burstyn Show in 1986 when returning to the United States. On three episodes of The Cosby Show (1989–90), Mrs. McGee appeared as the stern schoolteacher. Lanie Stieglitz had a recurring presence in Law & Order (1992, 1997). Judge Grace Lema on Oz (1998); and Martha Albright (mother of Jane Curtin's character) on two episodes of 3rd Rock From the Sun (1997, 2001), as co-star George Albright, who played George Albright. Colleen, Alec Baldwin's lead character, began appearing on NBC sitcom 30 Rock on April 26, 2007, as Colleen.

Stritch was apparently screened for Dorothy Zbornak's role on The Golden Girls, but she said in her film Elaine Stritch at Liberty that "blew her audition." Beatrice Arthur played Beatrice Arthur in the role. She appeared on One Life to Live (1993), replacing Eileen Heckart as Wilma Bern, replacing her fellow stage legend Eileen Heckart as Wilma Bern. She appeared on an episode of Late Show with David Letterman in 1996 as a woman who suspects host David Letterman is her pool boy.

Stritch appeared in more films in her later years than in the beginning of her career. In an interview in 1988, it was stated that "Making films is a challenge to Stritch because she describes herself as a novice." "I'm obsessed with it," she said. And I want to do more of them." When she wondered why she waited so long to make movies when she evidently loves it so much. "You film a film for, like, three months and then you're finished." You do a part in a play, and it's like going into a room full of people for a year.

She appeared in Three Violent People (1956) as Anne Baxter's hotel owner pal and then co-starred opposite Rock Hudson and Jennifer Jones in the David O. Selznick remake of A Farewell to Arms (1957) as Hudson's nurse early in her career. She co-starred in The Perfect Furlough alongside Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. In the cult film Who Killed Teddy Bear, she had a showy role as the lesbian owner of a bar. Sal Mineo, a 1960s film star, appeared in Sal Mineo's (1965). In the remake of The Spiral Staircase (1975), she played a "tough-as-nails" nurse and was praised for her appearance in Providence (1977).

Woody Allen played the former movie actress mother in his drama "September (1987)," as she returned to the United States in the mid-1980s from London. "Though the film has received mixed feedback, Stritch's roaring presence, like Godzilla in a stalled elevator, cannot be ignored," the people magazine called her performance "laudable." Allen starred her in his comedy Small Time Crooks (2000), in which she appeared as a "snobby socialite." "Elaine Stritch can even keep you in your tracks with a one-liner that is all she gets here," Rex Reed said.

She appeared in Cocoon: The Return (1988) as an apartment manager who assists widowed Jack Gilford with the news of his wife's death. Don Ameche and Gwen Verdon, two former Goldilocks co-stars, were among her co-stars. Dyan Cannon's wise-cracking mother and "danced up a storm" with the other characters appeared in Out to Sea (1997). In the film Autumn in New York (2000), Winona Ryder played Winona Ryder's loving grandmother.

Stritch played Miss Crock, the intended victim of a kidnapping by her disgruntled butler in the comedy Screwed (2000). (Norm Macdonald) Jennifer Lopez and Jane Fonda appeared in the comedy Monster in Law (2005) starring Jennifer Lopez and Jane Fonda, Fonda's mother-in-law.

Stritch appeared on an edition of the long-running BBC Radio comedy series Just a Minute in 1982 with Kenneth Williams, Clement Freud, and Barry Cryer. Because of the way Stritch stretched the show's laws, show's rules were described as one of the most memorable by long-time chairman Nicholas Parsons. Kenneth Williams was portrayed as a "one word" actor capable of turning a "one word" into a three-act play, according to her.

Stritch returned to America after a brief hibernation in her career and bouts with alcoholism, she began to perform again. In 1993 and 1994, she appeared in a one-night only concert of Company and as Parthy as Parthy in a Broadway revival of the musical Show Boat.

"Equally glorious is Stritch, with a meatier presence than her newest role as Parthy in 'Show Boat' in 1996." To see Claire ebbumbling her legs, folding and refolding her legs, her face crumpling like a paper bag, is to witness a different but equally winning form of the spian art. It's a master class up there."

Elaine Stritch at Liberty, a portrait of her life and work, premiered at New York's Public Theater from November 7 to December 30, 2001. It then appeared on Broadway from February 21 to May 27, 2002, and then, in 2002, at London's Old Vic Theatre. Newsweek reported:

Stritch appeared in the Broadway revival of Sondheim-Wheeler's A Little Night Music from July 2010 to January 2011, replacing Angela Lansbury in the role of Madame Armfeldt, the wheelchair-bound mother who remembers her days as a courtesan in the song "Lesson." "Devotees of Stritch, who earned her Sondheim stripes singing, recallably, "The Ladies Who Lunch" in Company 40 years ago, will delve into how the actress, who received a huge applause before her first appearance at a recent preview, brings her distinctively salty, acerbic style to the role of Madame Armfeldt, according to the AP reviewer.

The Toronto Star's theatre critic wrote: "I am a theater critic."

Stritch performed a cabaret act at the Café Carlyle Hotel in New York City, where she was a resident of 2005 until she left New York in 2013. "At Home at the Carlyle" was her first performance at the Carlyle.

The New York Times reviewer wrote:

Stritch shared stories from stage and screen, stories from her everyday life, and personal accounts of her personal tragedies and triumphs. She appeared at the Cafe Carlyle in early 2010 and in the fall 2011 show At Home at the Carlyle: One Song at a Time.

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