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Biography
Shirley Booth (1898-1992) was a distinguished and versatile actor. After working in stock companies for six years, she made her New York with Humphrey Bogart in Hell’s Bells (1925). She achieved popularity in musicals and drama in the 1930s & 1940s. Her first Tony was awarded for her performance as Grace Woods in Goodbye, My Fancy (1948). Her second Tony was for her widely acclaimed Lola in Come Back, Little Sheba (1950). This enormous success was immediately followed by A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1951), in which she played the feisty but loveable Aunt Cissy. She then went to Hollywood to recreate her stage role in the film version of Come Back Little Sheba (1952). It was her first film and she won an Oscar for her performance.
She returned to Broadway and won her third Tony playing the lonely Leona Samish in The Time of the Cuckoo (1952). She spent the next few years commuting between Broadway and Hollywood. In New York, she scored personal successes in the musical My Beautiful Sea (1954) and the comedy The Desk Set (1955). She also made four more films - Main Street to Broadway (1953), About Mrs. Leslie (1954), Hot Spell and The Matchmaker (both 1958). In 1961, she began the long-running sitcom Hazel, that was based on a popular comic strip about a sassy housemaid. For this, she won two Emmys and new stardom with a younger TV audience. Her last Broadway appearance was in a revival of Hay Fever (1970).
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Theatre: Playbills | A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN (book Betty Smith & George Abbott; music Arthur Schwartz; lyrics Dorothy Fields) |
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