Iconic Broadway actress-singer Carol Channing, best known for portraying Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly!, passed away from natural causes on January 15, 2019. She was 97 years old, just 16 days shy of her 98th birthday.
“It is with extreme heartache, that I have to announce the passing of an original industry pioneer, legend and icon - Miss Carol Channing. I admired her before I met her, and have loved her since the day she stepped ... or fell rather ... into my life,” her publicist B. Harlan Boll said in a statement. “It is so very hard to see the final curtain lower on a woman who has been a daily part of my life for more than a third of it. We supported each other, cried with each other, argued with each other, but always ended up laughing with each other. Saying goodbye is one of the hardest things I have ever had to do, but I know that when I feel those uncontrollable urges to laugh at everything and/or nothing at all, it will be because she is with me, tickling my funny bone.”
Carol Elaine Channing was born on January 31, 1921 in Seattle, Washington. When she was 16, Channing left home to attend Bennington College in Vermont, where she majored in drama. Her first stage job came in 1941 for Marc Blitzstein’s No for an Answer at the Mecca Temple in New York. She later moved to Broadway to serve as an understudy for Let’s Face It!, before earning a featured role in Lend an Ear in 1948. This latter role secured Channing her first Theatre World Award and launched her as a star performer. She went on to star as Lorelei Lee in the musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, gaining widespread recognition for her performance of “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.”
Channing went on to achieve national prominence as the star of Jerry Herman’s Hello, Dolly! in 1964. The sparkling musical comedy star thrilled audiences for nearly 5,000 performances as Dolly Levi, securing her the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Channing later her role of Lorelei Lee for the musical Lorelei, before going on to appear in several movies, including Thoroughly Modern Millie, The First Traveling Saleslady, and Skidoo. For her work on Millie, Channing was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture.
During her film career, Channing also made guest appearances on such television series as What’s My Line?, Sesame Street, The Nanny, and The Andy Williams Show. She also provided voiceover work for cartoons, most notably as Grandmama for The Addams Family. Channing made history as the first featured solo artist to appear during the halftime show at Super Bowl IV in 1970, before becoming the first Super Bowl repeat performer in 1972. Across her decades-long career, Channing earned a Tony Awards Lifetime Achievement Award, the Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre, and was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame and the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Channing was married four times throughout her life: Theodore Naidish (1941-1944), Alexander Carson (1953-1956), Charles Lowe (1956-1999) and Harry Kullijian (2003-2011). She is survived by her 66-year-old son, Channing Carson.
