judy holliday

Holliday from the trailer for the film Adam's Rib Born Judith Tuvim

June 21, 1921(1921-06-21)

New York City, New York Died June 7, 1965 (aged 43)

New York City, New York Spouse(s) Dave Oppenheim (1948-1958) [show]Awards won Academy Awards Best Actress

1950 Born Yesterday Golden Globe Awards Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy

1950 Born Yesterday Tony Awards Best Leading Actress in a Musical

1957 Bells Are Ringing Holliday in her dressing room, Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, 1959

Judy Holliday (June 21, 1921 – June 7, 1965) was an American Academy- and Tony Award-winning actress. Contents [hide] 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Investigated for Communism 4 Later life and death 5 Filmography 6 Stage work 7 References 8 External links //

Early life

Born Judith Tuvim ("Tuvim" is Hebrew for "Holiday") in New York City, she was the only child of Abe and Helen Tuvim, Jewish immigrants from Russia. She attended elementary school at PS 150, a school in Sunnyside, Queens, New York. Her first job was as an assistant switchboard operator at the Mercury Theatre run by Orson Welles and John Houseman.

Career

Holliday began her show business career in December 1938 as part of a nightclub act called "The Revuers." The other four members of the group were Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Alvin Hammer and John Frank; one of their accompanists was Leonard Bernstein. The Revuers were a staple of the New York nightlife scene until they disbanded in early 1944.

Holliday made her Broadway debut on March 20, 1945, at the Belasco Theatre in Kiss Them for Me and was one of the recipients that year of the Clarence Derwent Award. In 1946, she was back on Broadway, as the scatterbrained Billie Dawn in Born Yesterday. Author Garson Kanin had written the play specifically for his friend, the brilliant but difficult Jean Arthur. Arthur played the role of Billie out-of-town, but after many complaints and illnesses, she resigned. Kanin chose Holliday as her replacement.

Garson Kanin's book on Tracy and Hepburn mentions that when Columbia bought the rights to film Born Yesterday, studio boss Harry Cohn wouldn't consider casting the unknown (outside of Broadway) Holliday. Kanin, together with George Cukor, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, conspired to promote Holliday by offering her a key part in the 1949 film Adam's Rib. She got rave reviews and Cohn offered her the chance to repeat her role for the film version of Born Yesterday, but only after she did a screen test (which at first was used only as a "benchmark against which to evaluate" other actresses being considered for the role).[1] She won the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Actress, beating out such formidable competitors as Gloria Swanson, who was nominated for Sunset Boulevard