Elaine Stritch, an icon of the entertainment industry whose work stretches from Broadway to 30 Rock, has died. She was 89 years old.
Stritch died at her home in Birmingham, Michigan. Actress Hunter Ryan Herdlicka, who worked with Stritch in A Little Night Music, confirmed the sad news to Playbill.
Her career on the Great White Way began in the 1940s and had some of her iconic roles during the 1950s, appearing in Pal Joey and Bus Stop. In 1961, she appeared in Noel Coward’s Sail Away. She broke out in Stephen Sondheim’s iconic 1970 musical Company, belting out “The Ladies who Lunch.”
Stritch also appeared on television and in film, starring in Woody Allen’s September and Small Time Crooks, notes TheWrap. He best known TV role came later in life, when she gave an Emmy winning performance as Alec Baldwin’s pushy mother on 30 Rock. She also starred on Two’s Company while living in London in the 1970s.
She also got an Emmy for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program for the one-woman show Elaine Stritch at Liberty.
Just last year, Stritch finally retired from entertaining audiences, but she was not done yet. When a documentary was made of her life, Shoot Me, she did a media tour, which included her dropping the f-bomb live on The Today Show.
Expect the Broadway League to dim the lights for Stritch soon.
image courtesy of Walter McBride/INFphoto.com