Elaine Stritch (February 2, 1925 – July 17, 2014) was an American actress, singer, and comedian, known for her work on Broadway and later, television. She made her professional stage debut in 1944 and appeared in numerous stage plays, musicals, feature films and television series. Stritch was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1995.
Stritch made her Broadway debut in the 1946 comedy Loco. She went on to receive four Tony Award nominations for the William Inge play Bus Stop (1956), the Noël Coward musical Sail Away (1961), the Stephen Sondheim musical Company (1970) (which included her performance of the song "The Ladies Who Lunch"), and for the revival of the Edward Albee play A Delicate Balance (1996). Her fifth nomination was for her one-woman show Elaine Stritch at Liberty, which won the 2002 Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event.
Stritch relocated to London in the 1970s and starred in several West End productions, including Tennessee Williams' Small Craft Warnings (1973) and Neil Simon's The Gingerbread Lady (1974). She also starred with Donald Sinden in the ITV sitcom Two's Company (1975–79), which earned her a 1979 BAFTA TV Award nomination. She won an Emmy Award in 1993 for her guest role on Law & Order and another for the 2004 television documentary of her one-woman show Elaine Stritch at Liberty. From 2007 to 2012, she had a recurring role as Colleen Donaghy on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, a role that won her a third Emmy in 2007.
Early life Stritch was born on February 2, 1925, in Detroit, Michigan,Tallmer, Jerry. Interview The Villager, May 26 – June 1, 2004 the youngest daughter of Mildred (née Jobe), a homemaker, and George Joseph Stritch, an executive with B.F. Goodrich. She had two older sisters, Georgene and Sally.1940 United States FederalCensus Her Catholic family was well-off. Her father was of Irish descent, while her mother had Welsh ancestry. Cardinal Samuel Stritch, Archbishop of Chicago from 1940 to 1958, was one of her cousins. She trained at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School for Social Research in New York City under Erwin Piscator,"Elaine Stritch Biography" tcm.com, accessed August 31, 2009 alongside Marlon Brando, Bea Arthur, and Harry Belafonte.Porter, Darwin. (2005). Brando unzipped, pp. 5, 12, 18. Blood Moon Productions, Ltd.;
Career Early stage career Stritch made her stage debut in 1944. Her later Broadway debut was in Loco in 1946, directed by Jed Harris,"'Loco' Listing", IBDb.com; accessed May 22, 2012 followed soon after by Made in Heaven (as a replacement),"'Made in Heaven' Listing", IBDb.com; accessed May 22, 2012. and then Angel in the Wings (1947), a revue in which she performed comedy sketches and the song "Civilization".Elaine Stritch profile , pbs.org, accessed May 22, 2012.
Stritch understudied Ethel Merman for Call Me Madam, and, at the same time, appeared in the 1952 revival of Pal Joey, singing "Zip". Stritch later starred in the national tour of Call Me Madam, and appeared in a supporting role in the original Broadway production of William Inge's play Bus Stop. In 1958 she originated the leading role of Maggie Harris in the musical Goldilocks.
She starred in Noël Coward's Sail Away on Broadway in 1961. Stritch started in the show in a "relatively minor role and was only promoted over the title and given virtually all the best songs when it was reckoned that the leading lady...although excellent, was rather too operatic for a musical comedy".Sheridan Morley "Chapter:Pomp and Circumstance", Noël Coward, Haus Publishing, 2005; , p. 126 During out-of-town tryouts in Boston, Coward was "unsure about the dramatic talents" of one of the leads, opera singer Jean Fenn.Hoare, Philip. "Sail Away", Noel Coward: A Biography, University of Chicago Press, 1998, , p. 472
Joe Layton suggested "What would happen if...we just eliminated [Fenn's] role and gave everything to Stritch? The show was very old-fashioned, and the thing that was working was Elaine Stritch. Every time she went on stage [she] was a sensation." The reconstructed 'Sail Away' opened on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre on October 3, 1961", with Stritch giving what Howard Taubman of The New York Times said "must be the performance of her career."
In 1966, she played Ruth Sherwood in the musical Wonderful Town at New York's City Center, and appeared in an Off Broadway revival of Private Lives in 1968.
She was the original performer cast in the role of Joanne in Stephen Sondheim's Company (1970) on Broadway. After over a decade of successful runs in shows in New York, Stritch moved in 1972 to London, where she starred in the West End production of Company. On tour and in stock, 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.
Television Stritch's earliest television appearances were in The Growing Paynes (1949) and the Goodyear Television Playhouse (1953–55). She also appeared on episodes of The Ed Sullivan Show in 1954. She was the first and original Trixie Norton in a Honeymooners sketch with Jackie Gleason, Art Carney and Pert Kelton. The character was originally a burlesque dancer, but the role was rewritten and recast after just one episode with the more wholesome looking Joyce Randolph playing the character as a housewife.
Stritch's other television credits included a number of dramatic programs in the 1950s and 1960s, including Studio One. In the 1960–1961 television season, Stritch appeared in the role of writer Ruth Sherwood in the CBS sitcom My Sister Eileen, opposite Shirley Bonne as her younger sister, Eileen Sherwood, an aspiring actress. The sisters, natives of Ohio, live in a brownstone apartment in Greenwich Village. The one-season series aired opposite Hawaiian Eye on ABC and Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall on NBC.
She also co-starred in The Trials of O'Brien with Peter Falk and Joanna Barnes. The series ran for 22 episodes on CBS Television between September 18, 1965 and March 18, 1966.
In 1975, Stritch starred in the British LWT comedy series Two's Company opposite Donald Sinden. She played Dorothy McNab, an American writer living in London who was known for her lurid and sensationalist thriller novels. Sinden played Robert, her English butler, who disapproved of practically everything Dorothy did and the series derived its comedy from the inevitable culture clash between Robert's very British stiff-upper-lip attitude and Dorothy's devil-may-care New York view of life. Two's Company was exceptionally well received in Britain and ran for four series, concluding in 1979.Walker, Tim. "Donald Sinden's sadness at Elaine Stritch's death" The Telegraph, July 19, 2014, retrieved February 28, 2017 In 1979, both Stritch and Sinden were nominated for a BAFTA TV Award for Two's Company, in the category "Best Light Entertainment Performance", losing out to Ronnie Barker.
In 1980, Stritch starred in another series for LWT, Nobody's Perfect (the British version of Maude—not to be confused with the 1980 American series of the same name, which aired in the UK as Hart of the Yard) playing Bill Hooper alongside Richard Griffiths as her husband Sam. Unsatisfied with the Anglicised scripts, Stritch herself adapted the original American scripts for all but one of the fourteen episodes (Griffiths handled the remaining one).
Other British television appearances by Stritch included Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected. Although she appeared several times in different roles, perhaps her most memorable appearance was in the story "William and Mary", in which she played the wife of a man who has cheated death by having his brain preserved. She appeared on BBC 1's children's series, Jackanory, reading, among other stories, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.
After returning to the United States, she appeared on The Edge of Night as vinegary nanny Mrs. DeGroot, then was cast as a regular on the short-lived The Ellen Burstyn Show in 1986. She appeared as the stern schoolteacher Mrs. McGee on three episodes of The Cosby Show (1989–90). She had a recurring role in Law & Order (1992, 1997) as Lanie Stieglitz."Elaine Stritch Films" imdb.com, retrieved February 28, 2017 Other roles included 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), alongside her Broadway co-star George Grizzard, who played George Albright. On April 26, 2007, she began guest appearances on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock as Colleen, the fearsome mother of Alec Baldwin's lead character, Jack Donaghy.
Stritch was reportedly considered for the role of Dorothy Zbornak on The Golden Girls but, as she related in her show Elaine Stritch at Liberty, she "blew her audition".Bloom, Ken; Vlastnik, Frank; Lithgow, John (2007). Sitcoms: The 101 Greatest TV Comedies of All Time. Black Dog Publishing; , pp. 136–37 The role was cast with Beatrice Arthur. She was seen on One Life to Live (1993), replacing fellow stage legend Eileen Heckart as Wilma Bern. In 1996, she appeared on an episode of Late Show with David Letterman as a woman who believes host David Letterman is her pool boy.Evans, Bradford. "Here’s Elaine Stritch Yelling at Her Pool Boy David Letterman in a Classic Clip" Vulture, July 17, 2014, retrieved February 19, 2022
Film roles Stritch appeared in more films in her later years than the early part of her career. In an interview in 1988, it was noted that "Making movies is challenging to Stritch since she considers herself a novice." She said: "I'm fascinated with it. And I want to do more of them." She was asked why she waited so long to make movies since she apparently enjoys it so much. "You do a movie for, like, three months and then you're finished. You do a part in a play and it's like going into a roomful of audiences for a year."Willistein, Paul."Stage Star Elaine Stritch Wrapped Up In A New Career", mcall.com, December 3, 1988.
Early in her career, she appeared in Three Violent People (1956) starring Charlton Heston, as the hotel proprietor pal of Anne Baxter,"'Three Violent People' Listing" Internet Movie Database, accessed May 21, 2012 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.Crowther, Bosley. "Review. A Farewell to Arms (1957)", The New York Times, January 25, 1958 In The Perfect Furlough, she co-starred opposite Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. She had a showy role as the lesbian proprietor of a bar in the cult film Who Killed Teddy Bear? (1965), which starred Sal Mineo.Anderson, Melissa. "'Who Killed Teddy Bear', A Fascinating Chronicle of Wagner-era Times Square" Village Voice, January 19, 2010 She played a "tough-as-nails" nurse in the remake of The Spiral Staircase (1975)Pfeiffer, Lee."Review" cinemaretro.com, accessed May 21, 2012 and was praised for her performance in Providence (1977).Canby, Vincent. "Movie Review 'Providence' (1977). Movie House, Yes, The Movie, No:Fake Feathers The New York Times, January 26, 1977.