Hello, Dolly! star Anne Russell has died. She was 103.
Russell’s friend Ted Seifman confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that she died Tuesday at the Actors Fund Home in Englewood, New Jersey.
Russell began her Hello, Dolly! career in 1965 when she auditioned for Gower Champion and became the standby for Mary Martin, joining the show in Cleveland. She toured for more than two years with the famous Jerry Herman production, standing by for Betty Grable and Ginger Rogers as well.
She also toured with Mame‘s national tour in 1965, followed by summer engagements, bus and truck tours and stops in Las Vegas, playhouses and dinner theaters.
That was a banner year for Russell, as it was the same year she made her Broadway debut in Kander & Ebb’s Flora, the Red Menace, directed by George Abbott and starring fellow Broadway newcomer Liza Minnelli.
Born in Raleigh, North Carolina on March 22, 1923, Russell began in show business singing with local bands. She moved to New York, where she became the featured vocalist for the Les Brown and Jerry Wald orchestras while also developing a comedic nightclub act. Ed Sullivan gave her a rave review in his newspaper column; she appeared on his program twice.
She joined a national tour of Gypsy in 1961. She later played Tessie Tura in other Gypsy productions.
While with the Hello, Dolly! production during its tour of the Far East, she organized a group of performers called The Rice Paddy Seven to perform at military bases and hospitals, eventually taking the act to Las Vegas for 14 shows a week.
She toured with her longtime friend Debbie Reynolds in a stage production of The Unsinkable Molly Brown, then with Reynolds again alongside Shirley MacLaine, Joan Collins and Elizabeth Taylor in the 2001 made-for-TV ABC movie These Old Broads, co-written by Carrie Fisher.
Her other touring production credits include The Boy Friend, Forty Carats, Never Too Late and Oklahoma! She appeared in productions of Carnival, Shine, A Very Warm May and Anything Goes. She did voiceover work for radio and TV commercials as well as serving as a TV spokesperson for products like beds, bread and banks.
Remarkably, Russell learned to skydive at age 88 and zip-lined for the first time at 90, according to The Hollywood Reporter. As a member of the Edwin Forrest Society, she donated a portion of her estate to the Entertainment Community Fund, formerly known as The Actors Fund.
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