Judy Holliday | |
|---|---|
 Holliday in 1960 | |
| Born | Judith Tuvim (1921-06-21)June 21, 1921 Queens, New York City, U.S. |
| Died | June 7, 1965(1965-06-07) (aged 43) Manhattan, New York City, U.S. |
| Resting place | Westchester Hills Cemetery |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1938–1963 |
| Spouse | |
| Partner | Gerry Mulligan (1958–1965; her death) |
| Children | Jonathan Oppenheim |
Judy Holliday (bornJudith Tuvim, June 21, 1921 – June 7, 1965) was an American actress, comedian, and singer.[1]
She began her career as part of a nightclub act before working inBroadway plays and musicals. Her success as Billie Dawn in the 1946 stage production ofBorn Yesterday led to her being cast in the1950 film version for which she won anAcademy Award for Best Actress and aGolden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. She was known for her performance on Broadway in the musicalBells Are Ringing, winning aTony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical and reprising her role inthe 1960 film adaptation.
In 1952, Holliday was called to testify before theSenate Internal Security Subcommittee to answer claims she was associated withcommunism. Unlike other figures who lost standing, Holliday managed to get through unscathed. She continued to act on Broadway and film until her death frombreast cancer in 1965.
Holliday was bornJudith Tuvim inQueens, New York, the only child of Abe and Helen Tuvim (née Gollomb). She took her stage name fromyamim tovim, which is Hebrew for "holidays". Her father was executive director of the foundation for theJewish National Fund of America (1951–1958),[2][3] and a political activist who ran unsuccessfully six times between 1919 and 1938 as aSocialist Party candidate for theNew York State Legislature.[4] Her mother taught piano. Both were ofRussian-Jewish descent.[5][6] Judith grew up inSunnyside, Queens, New York, and graduated fromJulia Richman High School in Manhattan. Her first job was as an assistant switchboard operator at theMercury Theatre, which was administered byOrson Welles andJohn Houseman.[7][8]
Holliday began her show business career in 1938 as part of a nightclub act called The Revuers, whose other members wereBetty Comden,Adolph Green, Alvin Hammer, John Frank and Esther Cohen.[8][9] They played engagements in New York night clubs including theVillage Vanguard, Spivy's Roof, the Blue Angel, and theRainbow Room, and theTrocadero inHollywood, California.Leonard Bernstein, a friend of the group who shared an apartment with Green, occasionally provided piano accompaniment for their performances.[10] In 1940, The Revuers released a78-rpm album entitledNight Life in New York.[11] The troupe filmed a scene for the 1944Carmen Miranda movieGreenwich Village. Although the Revuers' performance was cut, Holliday was an unbilled extra in another scene. The group disbanded in early 1944.[7] Holliday remembered her years in the Revuers as unpleasant, saying she was initially a bad actress and so shy that she vomited between shows. She found it difficult to perform on stage in smoke-filled rooms while patrons over-imbibed, heckled, and fought with each other, but deemed entertainers successful if they persevered in such atmospheres.[12]
In her first film role, Holliday played an airman's wife inTwentieth Century Fox’s version of theU.S. Army Air Forces' playWinged Victory (1944). She made herBroadway debut on March 20, 1945, at theBelasco Theatre inKiss Them for Me, and was one of the recipients that year of theClarence Derwent Award for Most Promising Female Actress.[13]
In 1946, she returned to Broadway as the scatterbrained Billie Dawn inBorn Yesterday. AuthorGarson Kanin wrote the play forJean Arthur; but when Arthur left New York for personal reasons, Kanin selected Holliday, two decades Arthur's junior, as her replacement.[7][10][14] When Columbia bought the rights to adaptBorn Yesterday to film, studio bossHarry Cohn initially would not consider casting the Hollywood unknown, even though Holliday received rave reviews for her Broadway performance. Kanin, along withGeorge Cukor,Spencer Tracy, andKatharine Hepburn conspired to promote Holliday by offering her a key part in the Tracy-Hepburn filmAdam's Rib (1949).[15][16]
Cohn eventually relented and offered Holliday the chance to repeat her role forthe film version,[8] but only after a screen test (which at first was used only as a "benchmark against which to evaluate" other actresses being considered for the role).[17] For her film performance inBorn Yesterday, Holliday won the firstGolden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy; and at the23rd Academy Awards, won theAcademy Award for Best Actress, defeatingGloria Swanson, nominated forSunset Boulevard;Eleanor Parker, forCaged; andBette Davis andAnne Baxter, both forAll About Eve.[9][18]
Holliday starred opposite newcomerJack Lemmon in his first two feature films, the comediesIt Should Happen to You andPhffft (both 1954).
Film historian Bernard Dick summed up Holliday's acting: "Perhaps the most important aspect of the Judy Holliday persona, both in variations of Billie Dawn and in her roles as housewife, is her vulnerability...her ability to shift her mood quickly from comic to serious is one of her greatest technical gifts."[19] Director George Cukor also observed that Holliday had "that depth of emotion, that unexpectedly touching emotion, that thing which would unexpectedly touch your heart."[20]
In 1950, Holliday's name appeared on a list of 151 "pro-Communist" artists in the conservative publicationRed Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and TV. The next year, she wassubpoenaed bySenator Pat McCarran'sSenate Internal Security Subcommittee, which was investigating subversion and Communist activity in the entertainment industry. Holliday was one of several actors accused of fundraising for Communist front organizations.[21] She appeared before the committee on March 26, 1952, withSimon H. Rifkind as her legal counsel.[22]
Holliday was advised to play dumb, as in her film portrayal of Billie Dawn, and she did – often to comedic effect.[22][23][24] She denouncedStalinism andauthoritarianism generally, but defended thefree speech rights of those who espoused such views.[22] Holliday later wrote of the experience to her friendHeywood Hale Broun: "Woodie, maybe you're ashamed of me, because I played Billie Dawn ... But I'm not ashamed of myself, because I didn't name names. That much I preserved."[22] The investigation "didnot reveal positive evidence of any membership in the Communist Party".[22] The investigation concluded after three months and, unlike others whose careers were severely damaged by communist allegations, her career was relatively untarnished.
Holliday starred in the film version ofThe Solid Gold Cadillac, which was released in August 1956. In November 1956, Holliday returned to Broadway, starring in the musicalBells Are Ringing with book and lyrics by her Revuers friendsBetty Comden andAdolph Green and directed byJerome Robbins. In 1957, she won theTony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical.[25] Of Holliday's performance in the stage musical,Brooks Atkinson wrote inThe New York Times:
Nothing has happened to the shrill little moll whom the town loved inBorn Yesterday. The squeaky voice, the embarrassed giggle, the brassy naivete, the dimples, the teeter-totter walk fortunately remain unimpaired ... Miss Holliday now adds a trunk-full of song-and-dance routines...Without losing any of that doll-like personality, she is now singing music by Jule Styne and dancing numbers composed by Jerome Robbins and Bob Fosse. She has gusto enough to triumph in every kind of music hall antic.[26]
Returning to her film career after a gap of several years, Holliday starred in the film version ofBells Are Ringing (1960), her last film.
In October 1960, Holliday started out-of-town tryouts on the playLaurette, based on the life ofLaurette Taylor. The show was directed byJosé Quintero with background music byElmer Bernstein and produced byAlan Pakula. When Holliday became ill and had to leave the show, it closed in Philadelphia without opening on Broadway.
Holliday had surgery for a throat tumor shortly after leaving the production in October 1960.[27][28] Her last role was in the stage musicalHot Spot, costarring newcomers such asJoseph Campanella andMary Louise Wilson, which closed after 43 performances on May 25, 1963.[29]
In 1948, Holliday married clarinetistDavid Oppenheim, later a classical music and television producer, and academic. The couple had one child,Jonathan, before they divorced in 1957. In the late 1950s, Holliday had a long-term relationship with jazz musicianGerry Mulligan.[7][9]
In 1960, she was awarded a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame at 6901 Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles.[30]
Holliday died on June 7, 1965, at Manhattan'sMount Sinai Hospital from metastaticbreast cancer.[31][32][33] She was interred in theWestchester Hills Cemetery inHastings-on-Hudson, New York.[8]
| Year | Program | Episode | Co-stars |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1948 | Ford Theater | My Sister Eileen | Shirley Booth & Virginia Gilmore |
| 1951 | The Big Show | n/a | Fred Allen & Eddie Cantor |
| The Big Show | n/a | Fred Allen & Robert Cummings | |
| The Big Show | n/a | Tallulah Bankhead & Jack Haley | |
| The Big Show | n/a | Jimmy Durante & Carmen Miranda | |
| Hear It Now | The Human Tick | Edward R. Murrow (host) | |
| The Big Show | n/a | Groucho Marx & Bob Hope | |
| The Big Show | n/a | Tallulah Bankhead & Fred Allen | |
| 1957 | Recollections At 30 | Ladies Night | The Revuers (from 1940) |
| Year | Production | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1942 | My Dear Public | with The Revuers | |
| 1945 | Kiss Them for Me | Alice | |
| 1946 | Born Yesterday | Billie Dawn | |
| 1951 | Dream Girl | Georgina Allerton | |
| 1956 | Bells Are Ringing | Ella Peterson | Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical |
| 1960 | Laurette | Laurette Taylor | Closed out-of-town |
| 1963 | Hot Spot | Sally Hopwinder |
Holliday recorded two studio albums (not including her film and Broadway soundtracks) during her lifetime.
Inducted to the Walk of Fame on February 8, 1960 with 1 star.
Media related toJudy Holliday at Wikimedia Commons
