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| Birth Name(s) : Elaine Stritch |
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Full Elaine Stritch Biography
Stritch was born in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of Mildred (née Jobe), a homemaker, and George Joseph Stritch, a business executive. Her family was wealthy and devoutly Roman Catholic. Stritch's father was of Irish descent and her mother was of Welsh descent, and Stritch is the niece of Samuel Cardinal Stritch, the former Roman Catholic Archbishop of Chicago.
Stritch decided to stay in London to work on stage and in British television, having married John Bay, a younger actor she had met there. (Previously on American television she had had many series television appearances, the earliest most-notable being The Growing Paynes (1948) and The Goodyear Television Playhouse (1953-1955). She also appeared on episodes of The Ed Sullivan Show in 1954.)
In 1982, Stritch appeared on an edition of the long running BBC Radio comedy series Just a Minute alongside Kenneth Williams, Clement Freud and Barry Cryer. Discoursing on such subjects as "Kangaroo Pie", "What Makes Me Fall About Laughing", "Keeping My Figure" and "The Most Important Thing In My Life", Stritch finished the game in second place, despite being routinely targeted by the other panellists. It was on this occasion that Stritch famously described Kenneth Williams as being able to make "one word into a three act play".
In 2007, at age 82, she was honored with an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for one of two guest appearances on the NBC sitcom "30 Rock" as Colleen Donaghy, mother of Alec Baldwin's lead character, Jack Donaghy.
After John Bay's death from brain cancer in 1982, Stritch returned to America. After a lull in her career and struggles with alcoholism, Stritch began performing again in earnest in 1990. Among her appearances were roles in a revival of the musical Show Boat, a one-night only concert of her 1970 hit Company and Edward Albee's play A Delicate Balance.
In 2002, to great acclaim, Stritch began performing in her one woman show/show business memoir, Elaine Stritch At Liberty, which ran in New York and London. In 2005, and again in 2006, she performed a cabaret act at the Carlyle Room at the Hotel Carlyle in NYC, where she is a resident. The 90-minute show consisted of a selection of songs from her vast Broadway repertoire, including "The Ladies Who Lunch" from ]), as well as a rendition of the Theme from The Sopranos (Woke Up This Morning) which has brought the house down. Stritch captivated her audiences between songs with stories from the world of stage and screen, tales from her everyday life, and deeply personal glimpses of her private tragedies and triumphs.
In 2002, her one-woman show Elaine Stritch At Liberty won the Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event. Elaine Stritch at Liberty shared stories and songs from her life in theatre and observations on her experiences with alcoholism. The D.A. Pennebaker film of her show Elaine Stritch At Liberty (2004) combined rehearsal elements and her stage performance to also win several Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Achievement in a Variety or Music Program. Her televised acceptance speech alone seemed worthy of another Emmy, encapsulating the unbridled honesty and electricity that made her a legend:
With the cameras on all five nominees, the winning Stritch could be seen clutching her hands to the sky and saying "Oh. My. God!" and "Oh Shit!", gesticulating to herself and the audience and ranting aloud all the way to the stage. "Oh my God! Listen! (audience applause) (waves her hand to stop, shakes her head) No! That just takes time! Listen to me! I cannot tell you what would have happened to me if I couldn't have gotten out what's inside of me tonight. I don't know what I would have done with it! I...I try not to drink. But shit! I... (applause and laughter) (clasps hands) And look at the company I'm in! Just look at it!! And I mean I'm so glad none of them won! I'm so glad! None of them won!! I won!! And listen: I can hardly take a compliment. I've got a problem. Tonight: be my guest! (opens her arms wide) I am so happy to have won this award: number one, for Sheila Nevins and John Hoffman; number three, for Charles...no no Sheila... Chris Albrecht. Everybody at HBO: a class act. I think they do such a great job. And now I'm just going to start sayin' names and then they can take me off the stage when they want to. John Schreiber. Penny Baker. Rick Boruda. Marjorie Macdonald, my darling Marjorie Macdonald! Charlotta Freeman. Um, um, Scott Saunders...I don't like him very much but... (audience laughter!) he got the money! He got the money for me to do the show! So to-night, I love him! (audience laughter) Now I'm not moving from here until somebody comes and gets me! (laughter) You'll never know! You'll just effin' never know! (orchestra plays and she exits)
In recent years, she's gotten much more "pop culture" street cred after some memorable (some might say "outlandish") appearances and comments on the TV Emmy Awards.
Stritch has been candid about her struggles with alcohol. She took her first drink at 13, and began using it as a crutch prior to performances to vanquish her stage fright and insecurities. Her drinking worsened after Bay's death, and she sought help after experiencing issues with effects of alcoholism, as well as the onset of diabetes. Elaine Stritch At Liberty discusses this topic at length. |
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