Carol Lawrence
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Carol Lawrence (born Carolina Maria Laraia; September 5, 1932) is an American actress, appearing in musical theatre and on television. She is known for creating the role of Maria on Broadway in the musical ''
West Side Story ''West Side Story'' is a Musical theatre, musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a Book (musical theatre), book by Arthur Laurents. Inspired by William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo an ...
'' (1957), receiving a nomination for the
Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical The Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical is an honor presented at the Tony Awards, a ceremony established in 1947 as the Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, to actresses for quality featured roles in a ...
. She appeared at
The Muny The St. Louis Municipal Opera Theatre (commonly known as The Muny) is an amphitheater located in St. Louis, Missouri. The theatre seats 11,000 people with about 1,500 free seats in the last nine rows that are available on a first come, first s ...
, St. Louis, in several musicals, including '' Funny Girl''. She also appeared in many television dramas, including '' Rawhide'', ''
The Six Million Dollar Man ''The Six Million Dollar Man'' is an American science fiction and action television series, running from 1973 to 1978, about a former astronaut, USAF Colonel Steve Austin, portrayed by Lee Majors. After being seriously injured in a NASA test f ...
'' and ''
Murder, She Wrote ''Murder, She Wrote'' is an American crime drama television series, created by Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson and William Link, starring Angela Lansbury, and produced and distributed by Universal Television for the CBS network. The series f ...
''. She was married to fellow performer
Robert Goulet Robert Gérard Goulet (November 26, 1933 October 30, 2007) was an American‐Canadian singer and actor of French-Canadian ancestry. Goulet was born and raised in Lawrence, Massachusetts, until age 13, and then spent his formative years in Canad ...
.


Biography


Early years

Lawrence was born Carolina Maria Laraia on September 5, 1932, in
Melrose Park, Illinois Melrose Park is a village in Leyden Township, Cook County, Illinois, Leyden and Proviso Township, Cook County, Illinois, Proviso Townships, Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is a suburb of Chicago. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ...
. Her parents were of Italian ancestry,''Carol Lawrence: The Backstage Story''
McGraw-Hill, 1990, p.10,
her father being born in
Trivigno Trivigno is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Potenza, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata. It is the birthplace of the silent film actor and director Robert G. Vignola. References

Cities and towns in Basilicata {{B ...
, in the
province of Potenza The province of Potenza (; Potentino: ) is a province in the Basilicata region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Potenza. Geography It has an area of and a total population of 369,538 (as of 2017). There are 100 ''comuni'' (singular: ''com ...
, and her maternal family coming from the same town. Laraia graduated from Proviso Township High School, in Maywood, Illinois. She spent one year at
Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...
and then left to pursue her career.


Career

Lawrence made her Broadway debut as a Ted Adair Dancer in the 1951 revue ''Borscht Capades'', alongside
Joel Grey Joel Grey (born Joel David Katz; April 11, 1932) is an American actor, singer, dancer, photographer, and theatre director. He is best known for portraying the Master of Ceremonies in the musical ''Cabaret (musical), Cabaret'' on Broadway theatre, ...
. She achieved success in the role of Maria in the original Broadway production of ''
West Side Story ''West Side Story'' is a Musical theatre, musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a Book (musical theatre), book by Arthur Laurents. Inspired by William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo an ...
'' in 1957,"Carol Lawrence Credits"
''
Playbill ''Playbill'' is an American monthly magazine for Audience, theatergoers. Although there is a subscription issue available for home delivery, most copies of ''Playbill'' are printed for particular productions and distributed at the door as the ...
'', accessed April 24, 2015
receiving a nomination for the
Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical The Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical is an honor presented at the Tony Awards, a ceremony established in 1947 as the Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, to actresses for quality featured roles in a ...
(even though the part was the lead), losing to Barbara Cook (''
The Music Man ''The Music Man'' is a musical theatre, musical with book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Willson, based on a story by Willson and Franklin Lacey. The plot concerns a confidence trick, con man Harold Hill, who poses as a boys' band organizer and ...
''). She played the role for two years, and after an appearance in the short-lived show '' Saratoga'' in 1959 she returned to ''West Side Story'' for its 1960 season. Other Broadway successes were '' Subways Are for Sleeping'', '' I Do! I Do!'' (replacement "She/Agnes", 1967), and '' Kiss of the Spider Woman'' (1992–93, replacement Spider Woman/Aurora). Her most recent Broadway credit is serving as standby for
Lauren Bacall Betty Joan Perske (September 16, 1924 – August 12, 2014), professionally known as Lauren Bacall ( ), was an American actress. She was named the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, 20th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the America ...
in the 1999 production of
Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time (magazine), Time'' called "a sense of personal style, a combination of c ...
's '' Waiting in the Wings''. Lawrence made a few record albums of standards and showtunes including ''Tonight at 8:30'' (1960), where she sang studio versions of the songs "
Tonight Tonight may refer to: Television * ''Tonight'' (1957 TV programme), a 1957–1965 British current events television programme hosted by Cliff Michelmore that was broadcast on BBC * ''Tonight'' (1975 TV programme), a 1975–1979 British current ...
", and " Something's Coming", both from ''West Side Story''. Lawrence played several roles at
The Muny The St. Louis Municipal Opera Theatre (commonly known as The Muny) is an amphitheater located in St. Louis, Missouri. The theatre seats 11,000 people with about 1,500 free seats in the last nine rows that are available on a first come, first s ...
in St. Louis, Missouri, the largest outdoor theater in the U.S., including
Fanny Brice Fania Borach (October 29, 1891 – May 29, 1951), known professionally as Fanny Brice or Fannie Brice, was an American comedian, Illustrated Songs, illustrated song model, singer, and actress who made many stage, radio, and film appearances. Sh ...
in '' Funny Girl'' (1975), Charity in ''
Sweet Charity ''Sweet Charity'' is a musical with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields, and book by Neil Simon, based on the screenplay for the 1957 Italian film '' Nights of Cabiria''. It was directed and choreographed for Broadway by Bob Fosse sta ...
'' (1977), and Lucille Early in '' No, No, Nanette'' (1990). Among her other musical theatre parts are the title role in ''
Mame MAME (formerly an acronym of Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) is a free and open-source emulator designed to emulate the hardware of arcade games, video game consoles, old computers and other systems in software on modern personal computers and ...
'' (2000 at the Helen Hayes Center for Performing Arts in Nyack, New York), Guenevere in ''
Camelot Camelot is a legendary castle and Royal court, court associated with King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and, since the Lancelot-Grail cycle, eventually came to be described ...
'' (opposite husband Robert Goulet), '' Do I Hear a Waltz?'' at the Pasadena Playhouse (2001), and '' Follies'' at the Wadsworth Theatre in Los Angeles in 2002. Her television performances include a guest role in '' Breaking Point'' (as Evelyn Denner in the 1963 episode titled "There Are the Hip, and There Are the Square"). In October 1976, she appeared as the special guest on the popular weekly variety program ''
The Bobby Vinton Show ''The Bobby Vinton Show'' was a Canadian musical variety television series produced for the CTV Television Network between 1975 and 1978, with a total of 52 episodes broadcast. Featuring Bobby Vinton, a best-selling popular music singer since the ...
'', which aired across the United States and Canada. She performed "Friend of the Father". Other appearances include '' Rawhide''; '' Combat!''; ''
Wagon Train ''Wagon Train'' is an American Western television series that aired for eight seasons, first on the NBC television network (1957–1962) and then on ABC (1962–1965). ''Wagon Train'' debuted on September 18, 1957, and reached the top of the ...
''; '' The Fugitive''; '' The Big Valley''; '' Hawaii 5-0''; '' Marcus Welby, M.D.''; '' Medical Center''; ''
Kung Fu Chinese martial arts, commonly referred to with umbrella terms Kung fu (term), kung fu (; ), kuoshu () or wushu (sport), wushu (), are Styles of Chinese martial arts, multiple fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in Greater Ch ...
''; ''
Mannix ''Mannix'' is an American detective television series that originally aired for eight seasons on CBS from September 16, 1967, to March 13, 1975. The show was created by Richard Levinson and William Link, and developed by executive producer ...
''; ''
Murder, She Wrote ''Murder, She Wrote'' is an American crime drama television series, created by Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson and William Link, starring Angela Lansbury, and produced and distributed by Universal Television for the CBS network. The series f ...
''; ''
Saved by the Bell ''Saved by the Bell'' is an American television teen sitcom created by Sam Bobrick for NBC. The series premiered, in prime time, on August 20, 1989, a Sunday night. Targeted at kids and teens, ''Saved by the Bell'' was broadcast in the United ...
''; and ''
Sex and the City ''Sex and the City'' is an American romantic comedy, romantic comedy-drama television series created by Darren Star for HBO, based on Sex and the City (newspaper column), the newspaper column and 1996 book by Candace Bushnell. It premiered in th ...
''."Carol Lawrence"
masterworksbroadway.com, accessed April 25, 2015
From 1991 to 1993, she played the role of matriarch Angela Eckart on ''
General Hospital ''General Hospital'' (often abbreviated as ''GH'') is an American daytime television soap opera created by Frank and Doris Hursley which has been broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC since April 1, 1963. Originally a half-hour seria ...
''. She hosted five shows of ''Chef du Jour'' for the
Food Network Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery, who manages and operates it as a division of the Warner Bros. Discovery U.S. Networks Group. The channel airs both televi ...
, cooking from ''I Remember Pasta'', her own cookbook, and setting a record for cookbook sales on the
Home Shopping Network HSN, Inc. an initialism of its former name Home Shopping Network, is an American free-to-air television network owned by the QVC Group (formerly Qurate Retail Group), which also owns Catalog merchant, catalog company Cornerstone Brands. It is ...
. In 1999, she appeared in the television movie remake of Jason Miller's ''
That Championship Season ''That Championship Season'' is a 1972 play by Jason Miller. It was the recipient of the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 1973 Tony Award for Best Play. Plot synopsis The setting is 1972 at the Coach's home in Scranton, Pennsylvania. ...
'' in a cameo role as Claire's mother (the mother-in-law of Vincent D'Onofrio's character), a role written into the film specifically for her. In 2013, she appeared Off-Broadway at the Westside Theatre Downstairs in Jason Odell Williams's play ''Handle with Care.'' Lawrence has written her autobiography, with Phyllis Hobe, titled ''Carol Lawrence: The Backstage Story'', published in 1990.


Awards

* The Theatre World Award "Most Promising Newcomer" West Side Story 1958 * Lawrence was awarded the Harvard Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year Award in 1960. * She has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a landmark which consists of 2,813 five-pointed terrazzo-and-brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in the Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood dist ...
.


Personal life

Lawrence married three times: * Cosmo Allegretti (January 13, 1956 – January 30, 1959; annulled) *
Robert Goulet Robert Gérard Goulet (November 26, 1933 October 30, 2007) was an American‐Canadian singer and actor of French-Canadian ancestry. Goulet was born and raised in Lawrence, Massachusetts, until age 13, and then spent his formative years in Canad ...
(1963–1981); together they had two sons, Christopher (b. 1964) and Michael Goulet (b. 1966). * Greg Guydus (March 7, 1982 – December 12, 1984) Lawrence and Goulet married while both were Broadway stars; their romance was treated in the press like a fairy-tale. In her 1990 book ''Carol Lawrence: The Backstage Story,'' she accused Goulet of being an alcoholic and an abusive husband and father. Lawrence, a registered Democrat, accompanied Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman John Bailey, DNC Vice-chairwoman Margaret B. Price, DNC Secretary
Dorothy Vredenburgh Bush Dorothy McElroy Vredenburgh Bush (December 8, 1916 – December 21, 1991) was an American political activist. She was the secretary of the Democratic National Committee from 1944 to 1988. She also became the vice-president of the Young Democratic ...
,
Lena Horne Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was an American singer, actress, dancer and civil rights activist. Horne's career spanned more than seventy years and covered film, television and theatre. Horne joined the chorus of the C ...
,
Richard Adler Richard Adler (August 3, 1921 – June 21, 2012) was an American lyricist, writer, composer and producer of several Broadway shows. He is best known for his work with Jerry Ross (composer), Jerry Ross on the musicals ''The Pajama Game'' (1954) a ...
, and Sidney Salomon on a visit with President John F. Kennedy at
The White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800 whe ...
on November 20, 1963, two days before his assassination. Lawrence is Presbyterian and a member of the Bel Air Presbyterian Church.


References


External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lawrence, Carol Living people 1932 births Actresses from Chicago Singers from Chicago American musical theatre actresses American soap opera actresses American people of Italian descent People from Melrose Park, Illinois American Presbyterians California Democrats Illinois Democrats 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American actresses American stage actresses American film actresses American television actresses