Nancy Walker

Nancy Walker
from the trailer for Best Foot Forward (1943)
Born	Anna Myrtle Smoyer May 10, 1922(1922-05-10) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Died	March 25, 1992 (aged 69) Studio City, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress; performer
Years active	1941–1991

Nancy Walker (May 10, 1922 – March 25, 1992) was an American actress of stage, screen, and television. She also was a director of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, on which she occasionally made guest appearances. During her five-decade long career, she may be best remembered for her long-running role of Ida Morgenstern, which she played occasionally on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, as well as its spin-off, Rhoda, on which she co-starred.

Career

Born Anna Myrtle Smoyer ^[1]in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1922, the younger of two sisters. Their mother died when Anna was an infant. She and her elder sister, Betty Lou, who would also have a musical career, were raised by their father, Dewey Smoyer (known professionally as Dewey Barto; 1896-1973), a vaudeville entertainer and performer.

Walker made her Broadway debut in 1941 in Best Foot Forward. The role provided Walker with her film debut when a movie version, starring Lucille Ball, was filmed in 1943. A subsequent appearance was in the MGM musical, Broadway Rhythm, in which she had a featured musical number, "Milkman, Keep Those Bottles Quiet". This song was written especially for her by Leonard Bernstein.^{[citation needed]}

A diminutive four feet, ten inches (1.50 m) tall, Walker was difficult to cast; however, thanks to her dry comic delivery, she continued acting throughout the 1940s and 1950s, originating the roles of Hildy Eszterhazy ("I Can Cook, Too!") in On the Town and Katey O'Shea in Copper and Brass on Broadway. She was nominated for a Tony Award in 1956 for her work in the musical revue Phoenix '56 and again in 1960 for her performance in the hit musical Do Re Mi co-starring with Phil Silvers. Her appearances in musicals led to record releases. One such release, I Hate Men (1959, with Sid Bass and his orchestra), featuring such show tunes as "I'm Going to Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair" and "You Irritate Me So", has been identified as having one of the worst album covers of all time.^[2]

Dozens of television guest appearances and recurring roles followed, providing her with steady work. Her career spanned five decades, and included comedies, dramas and television variety shows such as The Garry Moore Show and The Carol Burnett Show. In the 1960-1961 season, she appeared in two episodes of NBC's The Tab Hunter Show. In 1970, she secured a recurring role as Emily the housekeeper in the hit situation comedy Family Affair starring Brian Keith, but the series folded the following year. She achieved her greatest success playing Ida Morgenstern, the mother of Valerie Harper's Rhoda Morgenstern, initially in a number of guest appearances on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and then as a regular in its spin-off, Rhoda.

During much of the time, she was also a regular on the successful Rock Hudson detective series McMillan and Wife, playing Mildred. These two roles brought her seven Emmy Award nominations. She also starred in two short-lived situation comedies, The Nancy Walker Show and Blansky's Beauties, both during the 1976–1977 season, giving her the rare distinction of being in two failed series in the same year. She returned to Rhoda (from which she had departed a year earlier) at the beginning of the 1977–1978 season, remaining with the show for the rest of its run. During this time, Walker started to direct episodic television, including episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda and Alice.

One of Walker's last major film roles was as the deaf maid, Yetta, in the 1976 all-star comedy spoof Murder by Death. She continued to remain active in show business until her death, playing Rosie, a New Jersey diner waitress in a series of commercials for Bounty paper towels from 1970 to 1990. She helped make the product's slogan, "The Quicker Picker Upper", a common catchphrase. Among her final appearances in a television series was the recurring role of "Aunt Angela", Sophia Petrillo's widowed sister, on The Golden Girls for which she received an Emmy Award nomination.

In 1980, Walker made her feature film directorial debut, directing disco group The Village People and Olympian Bruce Jenner in the pseudo-autobiographical musical Can't Stop the Music. The film was a box office failure, although it later became something of a camp/cult favorite. This was the only theatrical film ever directed by Walker.

Personal life

Married twice, she had a daughter, Miranda, with her second husband, musical theater teacher David Craig. Miranda Craig is an advertising copywriter.

Death

Walker died from lung cancer in Studio City, California in 1992, aged 69. At the time of her death, she was co-starring in the situation comedy True Colors. Her ashes were scattered in the Virgin Islands. She was survived by her husband and daughter.

References

Source

Thomas S. Hischak. The Oxford Companion to the American Musical: theatre, film, and television (June 2008), Oxford University Press, USA (ISBN 0195335333)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Nancy Walker

• Nancy Walker at the Internet Movie Database
• Nancy Walker at Allmovie
• Nancy Walker at the TCM Movie Database
• Nancy Walker at the Internet Broadway Database
• Nancy Walker at Find a Grave
• Findadeath.com