Alice Ghostley(1923-2007)
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Whether portraying a glum, withering wallflower, a drab and dowdy
housewife, a klutzy maid or a cynical gossip, eccentric character
comedienne Alice Ghostley had the ability to draw laughs from the
skimpiest of material with a simple fret or whine. Making a name for
herself on the Tony-winning Broadway stage, her eternally forlorn looks
later evolved as an amusingly familiar plain-Jane presence on TV
sitcoms and in an occasional film or two during the 50s, 60s and 70s.
Alice was born in a whistle-stop railroad station in the tiny town of
Eve, Missouri, where her father was employed as a telegraph operator.
She grew up in various towns in the Midwest (Arkansas, Oklahoma) and
began performing from the age of 5 where she was called upon to recite
poetry, sing and tap-dance. Spurred on by a high school teacher, she
studied drama at the University of Oklahoma but eventually left in
order to pursue a career in New York with her sister Gladys.
Teaming together in an act called "The Ghostley Sisters", Alice
eventually went solo and developed her own cabaret show as a singer and
comedienne. She also toiled as a secretary to a music teacher in
exchange for singing lessons, worked as a theater usherette in order to
see free stage shows, paid her dues as a waitress, worked once for a
detective agency, and even had a stint as a patch tester for a
detergent company. No glamourpuss by any stretch of the imagination,
she built her reputation as a singing funny lady.
The short-statured, auburn-haired entertainer received her star-making
break singing the satirical ditty "The Boston Beguine" in the Broadway
stage revue "New Faces of 1952", which also showcased up-and-coming
stars Eartha Kitt,
Carol Lawrence, Hogan's Heroes
co-star Robert Clary and
Paul Lynde to whom she would be invariably
compared to what with their similarly comic demeanors. The film version
of New Faces (1954)_ featured pretty
much the same cast. She and "male counterpart" Lynde would appear
together in the same films and/or TV shows over the years.
With this momentum started, she continued on Broadway with the
short-lived musicals "Sandhog" (1954) featuring
Jack Cassidy, "Trouble in Tahiti"
(1955), "Shangri-La" (1956), again starring
Jack Cassidy, and the legit comedy
"Maybe Tuesday" (1958). A reliable sketch artist, she fared much better
on stage in the 1960s playing a number of different characterizations
in both "A Thurber Carnival" (1960), and opposite
Bert Lahr in "The Beauty Part" (1962), for
which she received a Tony nomination. She finally nabbed the Tony
trophy as "featured actress" for her wonderful work as Mavis in the
comedy play "The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window" (1965).
By this time Alice had established herself on TV. She and good friend
Kaye Ballard stole much of the proceedings
as the evil stepsisters in the classic
Julie Andrews version of
Cinderella (1957), and she
also recreated her Broadway role in a small screen adaptation of
_Shangri-La (1960) (TV)_. Although it was mighty hard to take away her
comedy instincts, she did appear in a TV production of "Twelfth Night"
as Maria opposite Maurice Evans'
Malvolio, and graced such dramatic programs as "Perry Mason" and "Naked
City", as well as the film
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).
She kept herself in the TV limelight as a frequent panelist on such
game shows as "The Hollywood Squares" and "The Match Game".
Enjoying a number of featured roles in such lightweight comedy fare as
My Six Loves (1963) with
Debbie Reynolds,
With Six You Get Eggroll (1968)
starring Doris Day, and the
Joan Rivers starrer
Rabbit Test (1978), she also had a
small teacher role in the popular film version of
Grease (1978). Alice primarily situated
herself, however, on the sitcom circuit and appeared in a number of
recurring 'nervous Nellie" roles, topping it off as the painfully shy,
dematerializing and accident-prone witch nanny Esmeralda in
Bewitched (1964) from 1969-1972
(replacing the late Marion Lorne, who had
played bumbling Aunt Clara), and as the batty friend Bernice in
Designing Women (1986).
In 1978 Alice replaced Dorothy Loudon as
cruel Miss Hannigan in "Annie", her last Broadway stand. Alice would
play the mean-spirited scene-stealer on and off for nearly a decade in
various parts of the country. Other musicals during this time included
"Take Me Along", "Bye, Bye Birdie" (as the overbearing mother), and the
raucous revue "Nunsense".
A series of multiple strokes ended her career come the millennium and
she passed away of colon cancer on September 21, 2007. Her long-time
husband of fifty years, Italian comedic actor
Felice Orlandi died in 2003. The couple
had no children.
housewife, a klutzy maid or a cynical gossip, eccentric character
comedienne Alice Ghostley had the ability to draw laughs from the
skimpiest of material with a simple fret or whine. Making a name for
herself on the Tony-winning Broadway stage, her eternally forlorn looks
later evolved as an amusingly familiar plain-Jane presence on TV
sitcoms and in an occasional film or two during the 50s, 60s and 70s.
Alice was born in a whistle-stop railroad station in the tiny town of
Eve, Missouri, where her father was employed as a telegraph operator.
She grew up in various towns in the Midwest (Arkansas, Oklahoma) and
began performing from the age of 5 where she was called upon to recite
poetry, sing and tap-dance. Spurred on by a high school teacher, she
studied drama at the University of Oklahoma but eventually left in
order to pursue a career in New York with her sister Gladys.
Teaming together in an act called "The Ghostley Sisters", Alice
eventually went solo and developed her own cabaret show as a singer and
comedienne. She also toiled as a secretary to a music teacher in
exchange for singing lessons, worked as a theater usherette in order to
see free stage shows, paid her dues as a waitress, worked once for a
detective agency, and even had a stint as a patch tester for a
detergent company. No glamourpuss by any stretch of the imagination,
she built her reputation as a singing funny lady.
The short-statured, auburn-haired entertainer received her star-making
break singing the satirical ditty "The Boston Beguine" in the Broadway
stage revue "New Faces of 1952", which also showcased up-and-coming
stars Eartha Kitt,
Carol Lawrence, Hogan's Heroes
co-star Robert Clary and
Paul Lynde to whom she would be invariably
compared to what with their similarly comic demeanors. The film version
of New Faces (1954)_ featured pretty
much the same cast. She and "male counterpart" Lynde would appear
together in the same films and/or TV shows over the years.
With this momentum started, she continued on Broadway with the
short-lived musicals "Sandhog" (1954) featuring
Jack Cassidy, "Trouble in Tahiti"
(1955), "Shangri-La" (1956), again starring
Jack Cassidy, and the legit comedy
"Maybe Tuesday" (1958). A reliable sketch artist, she fared much better
on stage in the 1960s playing a number of different characterizations
in both "A Thurber Carnival" (1960), and opposite
Bert Lahr in "The Beauty Part" (1962), for
which she received a Tony nomination. She finally nabbed the Tony
trophy as "featured actress" for her wonderful work as Mavis in the
comedy play "The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window" (1965).
By this time Alice had established herself on TV. She and good friend
Kaye Ballard stole much of the proceedings
as the evil stepsisters in the classic
Julie Andrews version of
Cinderella (1957), and she
also recreated her Broadway role in a small screen adaptation of
_Shangri-La (1960) (TV)_. Although it was mighty hard to take away her
comedy instincts, she did appear in a TV production of "Twelfth Night"
as Maria opposite Maurice Evans'
Malvolio, and graced such dramatic programs as "Perry Mason" and "Naked
City", as well as the film
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).
She kept herself in the TV limelight as a frequent panelist on such
game shows as "The Hollywood Squares" and "The Match Game".
Enjoying a number of featured roles in such lightweight comedy fare as
My Six Loves (1963) with
Debbie Reynolds,
With Six You Get Eggroll (1968)
starring Doris Day, and the
Joan Rivers starrer
Rabbit Test (1978), she also had a
small teacher role in the popular film version of
Grease (1978). Alice primarily situated
herself, however, on the sitcom circuit and appeared in a number of
recurring 'nervous Nellie" roles, topping it off as the painfully shy,
dematerializing and accident-prone witch nanny Esmeralda in
Bewitched (1964) from 1969-1972
(replacing the late Marion Lorne, who had
played bumbling Aunt Clara), and as the batty friend Bernice in
Designing Women (1986).
In 1978 Alice replaced Dorothy Loudon as
cruel Miss Hannigan in "Annie", her last Broadway stand. Alice would
play the mean-spirited scene-stealer on and off for nearly a decade in
various parts of the country. Other musicals during this time included
"Take Me Along", "Bye, Bye Birdie" (as the overbearing mother), and the
raucous revue "Nunsense".
A series of multiple strokes ended her career come the millennium and
she passed away of colon cancer on September 21, 2007. Her long-time
husband of fifty years, Italian comedic actor
Felice Orlandi died in 2003. The couple
had no children.