Broadway star Carol Channing dies aged 97
Veteran actress who delighted audiences over almost 5,000 performances as the Dolly Levi was descended from German and Russian Jewish immigrants
Actress Carol Channing, who originated the starring role in “Hello Dolly!” on Broadway and won a Tony Award for her portrayal of the boisterous widow, has died. She was 97.
Channing was the daughter of a Jewish mother and a Christian father and identified as “part Jewish.” At 16, she learned that her father was multi-racial, with an African-American mother and a German father.
She wrote in her memoir of her five-year marriage to her first husband, Theodore Naidish, that she learned to speak fluent Yiddish from his grandfather, Sam Cohen, who lived in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach.
The Seattle native first became a star playing flapper Lorelei Lee in the 1949 production of “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” where she sang the iconic “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.”
Channing played Dolly Levi in “Hello Dolly!” winning the Tony in 1964. She played the role for the last time in a 1995 revival. Barbra Streisand was Dolly in the 1969 film version and Bette Midler also won a Tony for her portrayal in the 2017 Broadway revival.
Channing was recognised with a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 1995 and was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981. She made guest appearances on many television shows including “Sesame Street,” where she performed a parody of “Hello Dolly” called “Hello Sammy,” a love song to the Jim Henson character Sammy the Snake.
She died Tuesday of natural causes just days before her 98th birthday. Channing was married four times and has one son.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
