Arthur Laurents was an American playwright, theatre director, film producer and screenwriter. With a career spanning seven decades he received numerous accolades including two Tony Awards, a Drama Desk Award, and nominations for two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and a Golden Globe Award.
Ethel Merman was an American actress and singer. Known for her distinctive, powerful voice, and her leading roles in musical theater, she has been called "the undisputed First Lady of the musical comedy stage." She performed on Broadway in Anything Goes, Annie Get Your Gun, Gypsy, and Hello, Dolly!
Catherine Rosalind Russell was an American actress, model, comedian, screenwriter, and singer, known for her role as fast-talking newspaper reporter Hildy Johnson in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday (1940), opposite Cary Grant, as well as for her portrayals of Mame Dennis in the 1956 stage and 1958 film adaptations of Auntie Mame, and Rose in Gypsy (1962). A noted comedienne, she won all five Golden Globes for which she was nominated. Russell won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1953 for her portrayal of Ruth in the Broadway show Wonderful Town. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress four times during her career before being awarded a Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1973.
June Havoc was a Canadian-born American actress, dancer, stage director and memoirist.
Gypsy Rose Lee was an American burlesque entertainer, stripper, actress, author, playwright and vedette famous for her striptease act. Her 1957 memoir was adapted into the 1959 stage musical Gypsy.
Gypsy: A Musical Fable is a musical with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents. It is loosely based on the 1957 memoirs of striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee, and focuses on her mother, Rose, whose name has become synonymous with "the ultimate show business mother." It follows the dreams and efforts of Rose to raise two daughters to perform onstage and casts an affectionate eye on the hardships of show business life. The character of Louise is based on Lee, and the character of June is based on Lee's sister, the actress June Havoc.
Marie Frances Van Schaack, known professionally as Lili St. Cyr, was a prominent American burlesque dancer and stripper.
Ellen Tyne Daly is an American actress. Over her six decade career she is known for her leading roles on stage and screen. She has won six Emmy Awards for her television work, a Tony Award, and is a 2011 American Theatre Hall of Fame inductee.
Barbara Eden is an American actress and singer, who starred as the title character in the sitcom I Dream of Jeannie (1965–1970). Her other roles included Roslyn Pierce opposite Elvis Presley in Flaming Star (1960), Lieutenant (JG) Cathy Connors in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961), and a single widowed mother, Stella Johnson, in the film Harper Valley PTA (1978) and in the television series of the same name.
Applause is a musical with a book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, lyrics by Lee Adams, and music by Charles Strouse. The musical is based on the 1950 film All About Eve and the short story on which the movie is based, Mary Orr's "The Wisdom of Eve". The story centers on aging star Margo Channing, who innocently takes a fledgling actress under her wing, unaware that the ruthless Eve is plotting to steal her career and her man.
Margaret Alexis Smith was a Canadian-born American actress, pin-up girl and singer. She appeared in several major Hollywood films in the 1940s and had a notable career on Broadway in the 1970s, winning a Tony Award in 1972 for the Stephen Sondheim-James Goldman musical Follies.
Dolores Gray was an American actress and singer. She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical twice, winning once.
Margaret Kathleen Regan, better known as Kay Medford, was an American actress. For her performance as Rose Brice in the musical Funny Girl and the film adaptation of the same name, she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress respectively.
Leonard Spigelgass was an American playwright, film producer and screenwriter. During his career, Spigelgass wrote the scripts for 11 Academy Award-winning films. He himself was nominated in 1950 for the story for Mystery Street and garnered three Writers Guild of America nominations over the course of his career. Spigelgass was also a friend of Gore Vidal who used Spigelgass as the model for Vidal's semi fictionary "wise hack" character in the latter's series of essays about Hollywood.
Rose Evangeline Hovick was an American talent manager best known as the mother of two famous performing daughters: burlesque artist Gypsy Rose Lee and actress and dancer June Havoc. Her career as her daughters' manager is dramatized in the musical Gypsy.
Gypsy is a 1962 American musical film produced and directed by Mervyn LeRoy. The screenplay by Leonard Spigelgass is based on the book of the 1959 stage musical Gypsy: A Musical Fable by Arthur Laurents, which was adapted from the 1957 autobiography Gypsy: A Memoir by Gypsy Rose Lee. Stephen Sondheim wrote the lyrics for songs composed by Jule Styne. The film was remade for television in 1993.
Marilyn Cooper was an American actress known primarily for her work on the Broadway stage.
Gypsy is a 1993 American made-for-television biographical musical comedy-drama film directed by Emile Ardolino. The teleplay by Arthur Laurents is an adaptation of his book of the 1959 stage musical Gypsy, which was based on the 1957 autobiography Gypsy: A Memoir by Gypsy Rose Lee.
Sandra Church is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her performance as the original Gypsy Rose Lee in Gypsy (1959), for which she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She also co-starred with Marlon Brando in The Ugly American (1963).
Sophie Cookson is an English actress. She played secret agent Roxy Morton / Lancelot in the 2014 spy film Kingsman: The Secret Service and its 2017 sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle, and Pippa in the 2016 fantasy film The Huntsman: Winter's War. She played the title role of Christine Keeler in the 2019 BBC One drama television series The Trial of Christine Keeler.
