52 Facts About Elaine Stritch

1.

Elaine Stritch was an American actress, known for her work on Broadway and later, television.

2.

Elaine Stritch made her professional stage debut in 1944 and appeared in numerous stage plays, musicals, feature films and television series.

3.

Elaine Stritch made her Broadway debut in the 1946 comedy Loco and went on to receive four Tony Award nominations: for the William Inge play Bus Stop ; the Noel Coward musical Sail Away ; the Stephen Sondheim musical Company, which included her performance of the song "The Ladies Who Lunch"; and for the revival of the Edward Albee play A Delicate Balance.

4.

Elaine Stritch's one-woman show Elaine Stritch at Liberty won the 2002 Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event.

5.

Elaine Stritch relocated to London in the 1970s and starred in several West End productions, including Tennessee Williams' Small Craft Warnings and Neil Simon's The Gingerbread Lady.

6.

Elaine Stritch starred with Donald Sinden in the ITV sitcom Two's Company, which earned her a 1979 BAFTA TV Award nomination.

7.

Elaine Stritch's father was of Irish descent, while her mother had Welsh ancestry.

8.

Elaine Stritch trained at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York City under Erwin Piscator, alongside Marlon Brando, Bea Arthur, and Harry Belafonte.

9.

Elaine Stritch later starred in the national tour of Call Me Madam, and appeared in a supporting role in the original Broadway production of William Inge's play Bus Stop.

10.

Elaine Stritch starred in Noel Coward's Sail Away on Broadway in 1961.

11.

Elaine Stritch was the original performer cast in the role of Joanne in Stephen Sondheim's Company on Broadway.

12.

On tour and in stock, Elaine Stritch appeared in such musicals as No, No, Nanette, The King and I, I Married an Angel, and in Mame as both Vera Charles and Mame Dennis.

13.

Elaine Stritch appeared on episodes of The Ed Sullivan Show in 1954.

14.

Elaine Stritch was the first and original Trixie Norton in a Honeymooners sketch with Jackie Gleason, Art Carney and Pert Kelton.

15.

Elaine Stritch gave a moving performance on Wagon Train as the title character in "The Tracy Sadler Story".

16.

Elaine Stritch's performance was a convincing combination of brittle vulnerability and near self-sacrifice, due to her unconditional love for her son.

17.

In 1975, Elaine Stritch starred in the British LWT comedy series Two's Company opposite Donald Sinden.

18.

Elaine Stritch played Dorothy McNab, an American writer living in London who was known for her lurid and sensationalist thriller novels.

19.

In 1980, Elaine Stritch starred in another series for LWT, Nobody's Perfect playing Bill Hooper alongside Richard Griffiths as her husband Sam.

20.

Unsatisfied with the Anglicised scripts, Elaine Stritch herself adapted the original American scripts for all but one of the fourteen episodes.

21.

Elaine Stritch appeared on BBC 1's children's series, Jackanory, reading, among other stories, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.

22.

Elaine Stritch appeared as the stern schoolteacher Mrs McGee on three episodes of The Cosby Show.

23.

Elaine Stritch was seen on One Life to Live, replacing fellow stage legend Eileen Heckart as Wilma Bern.

24.

Elaine Stritch appeared in more films in her later years than the early part of her career.

25.

Elaine Stritch played a "tough-as-nails" nurse in the remake of The Spiral Staircase and was praised for her performance in Providence.

26.

Elaine Stritch joined the ensemble of Cocoon: The Return as an apartment manager who helps widowed Jack Gilford get over his wife's death.

27.

Elaine Stritch appeared in Out to Sea as Dyan Cannon's wise-cracking mother and "danced up a storm" with the other characters.

28.

Elaine Stritch played Winona Ryder's loving grandmother in the film Autumn in New York.

29.

Elaine Stritch had a rare co-starring role in the comedy Screwed, playing Miss Crock, who becomes the intended victim of a kidnapping by her disgruntled butler.

30.

Elaine Stritch appeared in the comedy Monster in Law starring Jennifer Lopez and Jane Fonda, playing Fonda's mother-in-law.

31.

In 1982, Elaine Stritch appeared on an edition of the long-running BBC Radio comedy series Just a Minute alongside Kenneth Williams, Clement Freud and Barry Cryer.

32.

Elaine Stritch described Kenneth Williams as capable of making "one word into a three-act play".

33.

Elaine Stritch appeared in a one-night only concert of Company in 1993 and as Parthy in a Broadway revival of the musical Show Boat in 1994.

34.

Elaine Stritch's one-woman show Elaine Stritch at Liberty, a summation of her life and career, premiered at New York's Public Theater, running from November 7 to December 30,2001.

35.

In case you didn't notice, Elaine Stritch is not the kind of woman who goes in for the sappy self-indulgence that pollutes most one-person shows.

36.

Elaine Stritch appeared in the Broadway revival of the Sondheim-Wheeler musical A Little Night Music from July 2010 to January 2011, succeeding Angela Lansbury in the role of Madame Armfeldt, the mother who remembers her life as a courtesan in the song "Liaisons".

37.

Elaine Stritch offers a sophisticated gloss on her by now patented, plain-talking woman who reveals all the home truths everyone ever wanted to hear about themselves.

38.

Elaine Stritch performed a cabaret act in New York City at the Cafe Carlyle in the Carlyle Hotel, where she was a resident from 2005 until she left New York in 2013.

39.

Elaine Stritch's first show at the Carlyle was titled "At Home at the Carlyle".

40.

Between musical numbers, Elaine Stritch told stories from the world of stage and screen, tales from her everyday life and personal glimpses of her private tragedies and triumphs.

41.

Elaine Stritch performed at the Cafe Carlyle in early 2010 and in fall 2011 in At Home at the Carlyle: Elaine Stritch Singin' Sondheim.

42.

Elaine Stritch was part of the family that owns the Bay's English Muffins company, and Stritch sent English muffins as gifts to friends.

43.

Elaine Stritch was good friends with gossip columnist Liz Smith, with whom she shared a birthday.

44.

In March 2013, Elaine Stritch announced she was leaving New York and relocating to Birmingham, Michigan, close to where she grew up.

45.

Elaine Stritch took her first drink at 14 and began using it as a crutch before performances to vanquish her stage fright and insecurities.

46.

Elaine Stritch's drinking worsened after Bay's death, and she sought help after experiencing problems with the effects of alcoholism, including the onset of diabetes.

47.

Elaine Stritch died in her sleep at the age of 89 at her home in Birmingham, Michigan, on July 17,2014.

48.

Elaine Stritch's body was buried at Memorial Park Cemetery, Cook County, Illinois.

49.

However, Elaine Stritch enthusiastically accepted the award at the 56th Tony Awards, later complaining that her acceptance speech was cut off by the strains of the orchestra, which left her feeling angry.

50.

Elaine Stritch was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1995.

51.

In 2009, a parody by Bats Langley entitled "How the Elaine Stritch Stole Christmas" appeared on YouTube.

52.

In yet another episode, "Stritch" is promoting her self-titled perfume "Stritchy" in dramatic fashion when she is confronted by the real-life Elaine Stritch, who makes a cameo appearance.