Kay Medford

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kay Medford (* 14. September 1914 in New York , New York ; † 10. April 1980 ibid; actually Kathleen Patricia O'Regan ) was an American theater and film actress.

Life

Kay Medford was born in 1914 (according to other information in 1920) as Kathleen Patricia O'Regan , daughter of James O'Regan and his wife Mary (birth name: Kelly) in the Bronx . She attended public and Catholic schools and lost her parents at the age of 15. After graduating from Morris High School in New York, Medford moved to Hollywood , where she planned to pursue a career as a film actress. From the early 1940s she appeared in more than a dozen MGM films , but until the 1950s she was exclusively subscribed to extra parts and insignificant supporting roles.

In parallel with her film appearances, Medford began making a living working in nightclubs. From 1939, the former waitress worked as a stand-up comedian. The actress toured various nightclubs in the US and Great Britain with her programs, including the Copacabana in New York and the London Cicero Club. In 1950 Medford appeared in a London cabaret program. A year later she returned to New York, where she made her Broadway debut in 1951 with the role of Cherry in Alan J. Lerner and Frederick Loewe's musical Paint Your Wagon .

With further Broadway appearances, almost without exception revues and comedies, Medford gained further fame until the late 1960s. Even when productions were not very successful, the performance of the actress with the hoarse voice was often honored by critics. Medford received fabulous reviews in 1954 for the comedy Lullaby , in which she starred alongside Mary Boland and Jack Warden . The supporting role of Eadie earned her the Theater World Award that same year . Another success was the production Bye Bye Birdie , which was performed over 600 times between April 1960 and October 1961 and earned her the New York Drama Critics Award . In the musical, Medford was seen as the mother of Dick Van Dyke , who tries to break the relationship with his Hispanic girlfriend (played by Chita Rivera ). Dubbed by one critic as "the comedian with the funniest dull expression since ZaSu Pitts " , the artist was often entrusted with maternal roles with increasing age.

The climax of Medford's stage career came in 1964 with Funny Girl . In the musical she was seen as the mother of the title heroine Barbra Streisand , who remembers the beginnings of her career and her turbulent private life in the role of the successful Jewish revue star Fanny Brice . The Broadway production had over 1,300 performances by 1967 and was nominated eight times for a Tony Award , including Medford for Best Supporting Actress . In April 1966 she made her London stage debut with Funny Girl at the Prince of Wales Theater , whereupon the Times highly praised her for her “brilliant performance of Deadpan ” . After major film roles in two in a room , the Elizabeth Taylor -Vehikel Butterfield 8 and girl on call appeared (all 1960) it in 1968 in William Wyler's successful film version of Funny Girl . For the part of Mrs. Brice, Medford received an Oscar nomination in 1969 , but was left behind compared to Ruth Gordon ( Rosemary's baby ).

The artist also slipped into the role of the correct Jewish wife and mother from 1966 in Woody Allen's comedy Don't Drink the Water with Lou Jacobi , her last Broadway appearance, as well as Alan Arkin's comedy Esbrennt auf allen Ecken (1977) with Vincent Gardenia . In addition to her stage and film career, Medford also made repeated appearances on American television, including character roles in television plays at the Kraft Suspense Theater , Dragnet , Naked City , Playhouse 90 and the US Steel Hour . From the 1970s she was seen repeatedly in television series, including the shows by Carol Burnett and Dean Martin and the recurring role of Harriet Endicott in To Rome With Love (1969-1970). The CBS sitcom starred John Forsythe as a widowed college professor moving his family from Iowa to Rome .

Kay Medford remained unmarried throughout her life ( "Sure, there is a lot of action in these mothers roles [...] but I was never a bride." ). She died of cancer in her Manhattan home in 1980 at the age of 65 after a long illness . Due to a relapse, she was unable to take part in the filming of John Schlesinger's film The Whole Freeway Upside Down (1981) as planned . Her funeral took place in the Roman Catholic Saint Malachy's Church in Manhattan, known as "Actors Church" .

Plays (selection)

  • 1951–1952: Paint Your Wagon (Shubert Theater, New York; role: Cherry)
  • 1953: Maya (Theater de Lys, New York; role: Celeste)
  • 1953: The Little Clay Cart (Imperial Theater, New York; role: Charudatta's Wife)
  • 1953–1954: John Murray Anderson's Almanac (Imperial Theater, New York; roles: including Fifi, Marmee, Sally Duprey)
  • 1954: Lullaby (Lyceum Theater, New York; role: Eadie)
  • 1954: Black-Eyed Susan (Playhouse Theater, New York; role: Dr. Zelda Barry)
  • 1955: Almost Crazy (Longacre Theater, New York; roles: including Big Queenie, Mary Smiles Winter, Ruth, Veracity)
  • 1957: Mr. Wonderful (Broadway Theater, New York; role: understudy as Lil Campbell)
  • 1956: Wake Up, Darling (Ethel Barrymore Theater, New York; role: Martha)
  • 1957: A Hole in the Head (Plymouth Theater, New York; role: Sophie)
  • 1957: Carousel (City Center, New York; role: Mrs. Mullin)
  • 1958: Handful of Fire (Martin Beck Theater, New York; role: Sylvi)
  • 1959: The Poker Game (tour; role: Susie)
  • 1960–1961: Bye Bye Birdie (Martin Beck Theater / 54th Street Theater / Shubert Theater, New York; role: Mae Peterson)
  • 1962: In the Counting House (Biltmore Theater, New York; role: Mary Buckley)
  • 1963: The Heroine (Lyceum Theater, New York; role: Sylvia Barr)
  • 1963: Pal Joey (City Center, New York; role: Melba Snyder)
  • 1964–1966: Funny Girl (Winter Garden Theater, New York; Prince of Wales Theater, London; role: Mrs. Brice)
  • 1966: Don't Drink the Water (Morosco Theater, New York; role: Marion Hollander)
  • 1974: Barefoot in the Park (tour; role: Mrs. Banks)
  • 1975: Light up the Sky (tour)
  • 1978: Where Memories Are Magic and Dreams Invented (Interart Theater, New York)

Filmography (selection)

Feature films

TV Shows

  • 1969–1970: To Rome with Love
  • 1970–1973: The Dean Martin Show

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c cf. AP : Kay Medford, Actress in Plays, Films and TV, Dies . April 10, 1980, AM Cycle, Domestic News, New York (accessed December 20, 2009 via LexisNexis Wirtschaft )
  2. ↑ cf. Kay Medford . In: Almanac of Famous People , 9th ed. Thomson Gale, 2007. (accessed June 28, 2009 via Biography Resource Center . Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009)
  3. ↑ a b c cf. Kay Medford . In: Who's Who in the Theater , 17th ed. Gale Research, 1981. (accessed June 28, 2009 via Biography Resource Center . Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009)
  4. ↑ According to Who's Who in the Theater , the name of Medford's father was James Regan
  5. ↑ cf. Biography at dougmacaulay.com (accessed December 20, 2009)
  6. ↑ a b c cf. Died: Kay Medford . In: Newsweek , April 21, 1980, United States Edition, Transition, p. 80 (accessed December 20, 2009 via LexisNexis Wirtschaft)
  7. ↑ cf. Spontaneity on its way to the top . In: The Times, April 14, 1966, ed. 56605, p. 17
personal data
SURNAME Medford, Kay
ALTERNATIVE NAMES O'Regan, Kathleen Patricia (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American theater and film actress
DATE OF BIRTH September 14, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH New York , New York
DATE OF DEATH April 10, 1980
Place of death New York, New York