Carol Channing, the Broadway icon who became legendary for performances in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Hello, Dolly! has died, according to The New York Times. Channing’s publicist, B. Harlan Boll, confirmed the news, noting that she had suffered two strokes in the past year. She was 97 years old.
Channing began her theater career in 1941, before gaining notice as Lorelei Lee in the 1949 Broadway production of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. She went on to originate the lead role in Hello, Dolly!, which earned her a Tony award in 1964 for Best Actress in a Musical. Channing continued performing well into her later years, reprising her Hello, Dolly! role in 1977, 1981, and again in 1994, at the age of 73. During the final performance in 1995–her last on Broadway–Channing said, “Performing is the only excuse for my existence. What can be better than this?”
In addition to her prolific theater career, Channing lent her memorable voice to animated films, such as 1990's Happily Ever After and 1994's Thumbelina, and portrayed the White Queen in the two-part 1985 television adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. Channing frequently appeared on television as herself, on classic shows like The Muppet Show, The Love Boat, and Sesame Street, among others. In recent years, Channing had been a guest on episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race and Kathy Griffin: My Life On The D-List.
Tributes to the theater legend have been pouring in on social media:
12 Comments
RIP to my White Queen. You’re finally getting your jam today:
Jam tomorrow, jam yesterday… well, jam yesterday, anyway.
I saw the Hello, Dolly! revival on Broadway last year and talked to folks in the audience who had crystal clear memories of seeing Channing in it decades ago – gestures she made, the particular way she said a line, her entrances.
To honor this great woman’s memory, I’ll be eating a big bowl of corn tonight. RIP
Carol Channing was reliably funny and goofily charming every time she showed up on a talk show back in the day. One time she was a guest and about to sing a song the band didn’t know or hadn’t rehearsed (really – it had come in conversation. Talk shows were occasionally spontaneous back then, or seemed to be). She just got up and said “no, that’s okay, I’ll do it Acapulco”. Like the article and comments say, she really seemed to have fun and to have done everything she wanted. Good for her. Almost a century – a nice run by any standards.. She was also the perfect voice for Mehitabel in the unfortunately not very good* adaptation of the Don Marquis stories, 1971’s Shinebone Alley.[Archy and Mehitabel, guys – created in 1916 by Marquis for The Evening Sun? Mehitabel was a cat, Archy was a cockroach who typed the poems and stories at night, by jumping up and down on Marquis’ typewriter? No capital letters until archy discovered the caps lock key some years later? George Herriman illustrated the book collections?[Do I have to walk you guys through everything?]*even though written by Mel Brooks…!
When you die at 97, you don’t need to give a cause of death. Frankly any death after 75+ should be considered “natural causes”.
Hey! You never know! She could have gone skydiving and the rip cord broke.
Goodbye, Dolly.
At times like these we can all come together as Americans and say “Holy crap! Carole Channing was still alive???!?”
Even as a 9-year-old, I knew when I saw Carol Channing perform “Hello Dolly” in 1964 I was witnessing pure magic.Seated in a plush seat at the St. James Theatre clutching my Playbill I was dazzled. I couldn’t keep my eyes off this larger than life, fast-talking, gravely voiced powerhouse of a woman with the big saucer eyes gleaming with an innocence that belied her savyness. Her incandescent smiled glowed all the way up to our seats in the mezzanine. I was mesmerized, forever solidifying my love of Broadway and Miss Channing.
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She was a legend, and deservedly so. David Letterman had a throw-away joke about her in a bit back in the 80s and ever since then, i can’t say her name without thinking of it:Carol Channing: Denture Wearer, Condom User.
Gen X v. C. Channing:That weird voice from the Free to Be You and Me record. The weirdo on the Muppet Show and the Love Boat.