- Dorothy Loudon
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Dorothy Loudon Born September 17, 1925[1]
Boston, Massachusetts, USADied November 15, 2003 (aged 78)
New York City, New York, USAOccupation Actor Spouse Norman Paris (1971-1977) Dorothy Loudon (September 17, 1925 – November 15, 2003)[2] was an American comedy actress and singer. She won the 1977 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Miss Hannigan in Annie.
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Early life and career
Loudon was born in Boston and raised in Indianapolis and Claremont, New Hampshire. She attended Syracuse University on a drama scholarship but did not graduate, and moved to New York City to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She began singing in night clubs, mingling song with ad-libbed comedy patter, and was featured on television on The Perry Como Show and The Ed Sullivan Show.[3]
Loudon made her stage debut in 1962 in The World of Jules Feiffer, a play with incidental music by Stephen Sondheim, under the direction of Mike Nichols. That same year she made her Broadway debut in Nowhere to Go But Up, which ran only two weeks but earned her good reviews and the Theatre World Award.[4] In 1969, The Fig Leaves Are Falling ran for only four performances, although it won her the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance and a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical. She followed this with a revival of Three Men on a Horse directed by George Abbott; Lolita, My Love, which closed out-of-town during its pre-Broadway tryout; and a revival of the Clare Boothe Luce comedy The Women.
Broadway fame
Loudon's performance as evil orphanage administrator Miss Hannigan in Annie won her the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical in 1977. In the show she introduced the seminal showtunes "Little Girls" and "Easy Street." Of her portrayal, Clive Barnes wrote, "As the wicked Miss Hannigan, Dorothy Loudon, eyes bulging with envy, face sagging with hatred, is deliciously and deliriously horrid. She never puts a sneer, a leer, or even a scream in the wrong place, and her singing has just the right brassy bounce to it."[5] Loudon later revisited the character of Miss Hannigan in the ill-fated 1990 sequel, Annie 2: Miss Hannigan's Revenge, which closed quickly after a dismal pre-Broadway engagement in Washington DC.
In 1979, Michael Bennett cast Loudon as Bea Asher, a widow who becomes romantically involved with a mail carrier she meets at the local dance hall, in Ballroom. She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical. She performed the number "Fifty Percent" from the musical during that year's Tony Awards ceremony. During her rendition of George Gershwin's "Vodka" at the 1983 Tony Awards ceremony, she ad-libbed, "I'm too good for this room...I'm too good for this song!"[6] At the 38th Annual Tony Awards ceremony in 1984, Loudon performed "Broadway Baby" from Follies. In The New York Times, John O'Connor said of her performance, "Miss Loudon has developed the art of mugging into something of a hyperactive disease."[7]
In 1980, Loudon replaced Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett in Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd. In reviewing her performance for the Christian Science Monitor, David Sterritt said, "Her body sways like a reed in the emotional storms of her own scatter-brained creation, and her off-hand manner becomes still more off-handed when the most explosive matters are at stake... Miss Loudon gives a comic characterization in the most classical tradition."[8] The following year she co-starred with Katharine Hepburn and Julia Barr in the play The West Side Waltz. In 1982 she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre. She appeared in the 1983 Jerry Herman revue Jerry's Girls; that same year she created the role of the miserable middle-aged actress Dotty Otley on Broadway in Michael Frayn's farce Noises Off, a huge hit.
Television and film
In 1979, Loudon starred in the television series Dorothy, in which she portrayed a former showgirl teaching music and drama at a boarding school for girls. It lasted only one season. She appeared in only two films, playing an agent in the film Garbo Talks and a Southern eccentric in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.
Coincidentally, two roles Loudon created for the Broadway stage - Miss Hannigan in Annie and Dotty Otley, a washed-up actress struggling to succeed in a dreadful sex comedy in the 1983 farce Noises Off - were played by Carol Burnett on screen.
Personal life
Loudon was married to Norman Paris, a composer who wrote the theme song for the television game show I've Got a Secret and arranged the music for Stephen Sondheim's television musical Evening Primrose, from 1971 until his death in 1977. She died in New York City of cancer at the age of 78, and was interred in Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla in Westchester County. She left no survivors.[4]
Theatre credits
- The World of Jules Feiffer (1962)
- Nowhere to Go But Up (1962)
- Noël Coward's Sweet Potato (1968)
- The Fig Leaves are Falling (1969)
- Three Men on a Horse (1969)
- Lolita, My Love (1971)
- The Women (1973)
- Annie (1977)
- Ballroom (1979)
- Sweeney Todd (1980)
- The West Side Waltz (1981)
- Noises Off (1983)
- Jerry's Girls (1985)
- Comedy Tonight (1994)
Television credits
- It's a Business (1952)
- The Garry Moore Show (1962–1964)
- Dorothy (1979)
- Magnum, P.I. (1986)
- Murder, She Wrote (1986)
- Performance at the White House: Showstoppers (1988)
- A Salute to Broadway: Showstoppers (1988)
- All My Children (1993)
- Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall (1993)
- My Favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies (1999)
Film credits
- Garbo Talks (1984)
- Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)
References
- ^ Dorothy Loudon Foundation. [1]
- ^ Dorothy Loudon Foundation. [2]
- ^ Oliver, Myrna.Dorothy Loudon, 70; Stage Actress Was ‘Miss Hannigan’", Los Angeles Times, November 17, 2003
- ^ a b Simonson, Robert."Memorial Service for Dorothy Loudon to Be Held Nov. 20", playbill.com, November 19, 2003
- ^ Wilmeth, Don B. and Jacobs, Leonard. The Cambridge Guide to American Theatre (2007), Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-83538-0, p. 404
- ^ O'Connor, John. "TV:The Tony Awards, With Gershwin Tribute", New York Times, June 7, 1983, p.C8
- ^ O'Connor, John. "The 38th Tony Awards", New York Times, June 5, 1984, p.C17
- ^ Sterritt, David. Christian Science Monitor (Boston, MA), Theater Reviews, March 26, 1980, Pg. 23
External links
- Dorothy Loudon at the Internet Broadway Database
- Dorothy Loudon at the Internet Movie Database
- Dorothy Loudon at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
- Filmreference.com
- Dorothy Loudon at Find a Grave
- Dorothy Loudon papers, 1885-2003. Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical (1975–2000) Donna Theodore (1975) · Vivian Reed (1976) · Dorothy Loudon (1977) · Bobo Lewis / Swoosie Kurtz (1978) · Merle Louise (1979) · Debbie Allen (1980) · Marilyn Cooper (1981) · Liliane Montevecchi (1982) · Karla Burns (1983) · Catherine Cox (1984) · Leilani Jones (1985) · Jana Schneider (1986) · Jane Summerhays (1987) · Joanna Gleason (1988) · Randy Graff (1990) · Karen Ziemba (1991) · Barbara Walsh (1992) · Rachel York (1993) · Audra McDonald (1994) · Rachel York (1996) · Lillias White (1997) · Tsidii Le Loka (1998) · Kristin Chenoweth (1999) · Karen Ziemba (2000)
Complete list · (1975–2000) · (2001–2025) Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical (1976–2000) Donna McKechnie (1976) · Dorothy Loudon (1977) · Liza Minnelli (1978) · Angela Lansbury (1979) · Patti LuPone (1980) · Lauren Bacall (1981) · Jennifer Holliday (1982) · Natalia Makarova (1983) · Chita Rivera (1984) · Bernadette Peters (1986) · Maryann Plunkett (1987) · Joanna Gleason (1988) · Ruth Brown (1989) · Tyne Daly (1990) · Lea Salonga (1991) · Faith Prince (1992) · Chita Rivera (1993) · Donna Murphy (1994) · Glenn Close (1995) · Donna Murphy (1996) · Bebe Neuwirth (1997) · Natasha Richardson (1998) · Bernadette Peters (1999) · Heather Headley (2000)
Complete list · (1948–1975) · (1976–2000) · (2001–2025) Categories:- 1933 births
- 2003 deaths
- American musical theatre actors
- American female singers
- Tony Award winners
- Drama Desk Award winners
- American Theatre Hall of Fame inductees
- RCA Victor artists
- People from Boston, Massachusetts
- Cancer deaths in New York
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