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Julie Wilson 1924 - 2015

Julie Wilson was born on October 21, 1924 in Omaha, Douglas County, Nebraska United States, and died at age 90 years old on April 5, 2015.

Julie Wilson

Julie Mary (or May) Wilson

October 21, 1924

Omaha, Douglas County, Nebraska, United States

April 5, 2015

Female

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Julie Wilson Julie Wilson (1924 - 2015)

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Julie Wilson's History: 1924 - 2015

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Introduction

Julie Wilson Born Julie May Wilson October 21, 1924 Omaha, Nebraska, . Died April 5, 2015 (aged 90) New York, New York, U.S. Occupation Singer, actress Years active 1942–1990 Notable work Legs Diamond Julie May Wilson (October 21, 1924 – April 5, 2015) was an American singer and actress "widely regarded as the queen of cabaret". She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical in 1989 for her performance in Legs Diamond. Wilson was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the daughter of Emily (née Bennett), a hairdresser, and Russell Wilson, a coal salesman.[3] She first found a musical outlet with local musical group "Hank's Hepcats" in her teenage years and briefly attended Omaha University. She won the title of Miss Nebraska and would have competed in the Miss America pageant, until it was discovered that she was just under the required minimum age of 18. She headed to New York City during World War II and found work in two of Manhattan's leading nightclubs, the Latin Quarter and the Copacabana. Gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, in a 1948 newspaper column, referred to Wilson as "Kay Thompson's discovery," adding that Wilson "is being tested by Arthur Freed at Metro." Wilson with Phil Silvers in an episode of The Phil Silvers Show in 1958 She made her Broadway stage debut in the 1946 revue Three to Make Ready.In 1951, she moved to London to star in the West End production of Kiss Me, Kate and remained there for four years, appearing in shows such as South Pacific and Bells Are Ringing while studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. She returned to New York to replace Joan Diener in Kismet. Additional Broadway credits include The Pajama Game (1954), Jimmy (1969), Park (1970), and Legs Diamond (1988), for which she received a Tony Award nomination as Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She also toured in Show Boat, Panama Hattie, Silk Stockings, Follies, Company, and A Little Night Music. In 1957, Wilson sang with Ray Anthony and his Orchestra, contributing vocals to a number of songs in the soundtrack to the film This Could Be The Night. Wilson also had an acting role in the film, as singer Ivy Corlane. Wilson's television credits include regular roles on the American daytime soap opera The Secret Storm. She also appeared in a Hallmark Hall of Fame telecast of Kiss Me, Kate and numerous episodes of The Ed Sullivan Show. Personal life With her second husband, actor/producer Michael McAloney, Wilson had two sons, Holt and Michael, Jr., who attended school in Ireland while their parents worked in New York City. When the marriage failed, Wilson sent the boys to live with her parents in Omaha. When they reached their teen years, she retired and joined them. Holt McAloney now acts under the name Holt McCallany. Michael McAloney Jr. died in 1991. In 1983, with her sons grown and her parents deceased, she found her niche and forged her reputation as a cabaret performer, known primarily for her dramatic delivery of torch songs and show tunes. Her recordings include My Old Flame, Live From the Russian Tea Room, Julie Wilson At the St. Regis, and collections devoted to the songbooks of Cole Porter, Kurt Weill, Harold Arlen, Cy Coleman, and George and Ira Gershwin.
10/21

1924

Birthday

October 21, 1924

Birthdate

Omaha, Douglas County, Nebraska United States

Birthplace

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04/5

2015

Death

April 5, 2015

Death date

Unknown
Cause of death

Unknown
Death location

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Obituary

Julie Wilson, Sultry Cabaret Legend and Actress, Dies at 90 The New York Times By Stephen Holden April 6, 2015 Julie Wilson, the revered nightclub performer and actress widely regarded as the queen of cabaret, died on Sunday in Manhattan. She was 90. She died after having a stroke, her son Holt McCallany, an actor, said. The rail-thin Ms. Wilson, her hair pulled back, a gardenia tucked behind one ear, cut a striking and elegant figure onstage in clinging custom-made gowns usually augmented by a feather boa. As she wove her spell, performing standards from the American songbook in addition to humorously racy material, she was by turns naughty and intense, digging so deeply into the lyrics she sang that she seemed to be living them. Ms. Wilson did not shy from strong emotion. Her voice, though limited in range and not conventionally beautiful, was a forceful dramatic instrument that she wielded with the authority of a great storyteller. As she aged, she increasingly moved toward the style of speech-song known as parlando, long associated with Mabel Mercer, which imbued lyrics with a conversational immediacy. One of her many definitive performances was her rendition of Stephen Sondheim’s “I’m Still Here,” a song that could be read as the story of her life on the bumpy road of show business. Julia Mary Wilson was born in Omaha on Oct. 21, 1924. Her mother, the former Emily Bennet, was a hairdresser; her father, Russell Wilson, sold coal for a living. She began singing with local bands at 14 and briefly attended Omaha University (now the University of Nebraska, Omaha). She won the title of Miss Nebraska and would have competed in the Miss America Pageant, but she had to give up the title when the mother of the runner-up discovered she was three days short of 18, the minimum age. Ms. Wilson joined the chorus of “Earl Carroll’s Vanities” in Omaha in the early 1940s and traveled with the show to New York, where she worked as a chorus girl at the Copacabana and the Latin Quarter. In 1946 she made her Broadway debut in the revue “Three to Make Ready.” After winning a singing contest on a radio show hosted by Mickey Rooney, she was offered an engagement at the Mocambo in Los Angeles. While there she met Cole Porter, who offered her the role of Bianca in the London production of “Kiss Me, Kate.” She remained in England through the early 1950s, appearing there in musicals including “Bet Your Life” and “South Pacific.” The nightclub she later called her “anchor” and the place where she said she “grew up” was La Maisonette at the St. Regis Hotel in Manhattan, where she first performed around 1948. She continued to sing in nightclubs in the 1950s and ’60s and appeared in road productions of “Show Boat,” “Silk Stockings” and “Panama Hattie,” but turned down the lead in the original 1954 Broadway production of “The Pajama Game” to continue studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. (She later joined the cast as a replacement.) She also recorded several albums during this period, of which the most representative was “Julie Wilson at the St. Regis,” and appeared in two 1957 movies, “The Strange One,” a dark psychological drama, and “This Could Be the Night,” in which she played a saloon singer. She later had roles in two flop Broadway musicals, “Jimmy” (1969) and “Park” (1970), but was well received in road productions of three Sondheim shows: “Company,” “Follies” and “A Little Night Music.” In 1976 Ms. Wilson began a seven-year sabbatical from show business and moved back to Omaha to bring up her two sons, Holt and Michael, as they entered their teens. Michael died in 1991. In addition to Holt, she is survived by a granddaughter. She was married and divorced three times. Ms. Wilson returned to New York nightclubs in 1984 with a triumphant engagement at Michael’s Pub, singing the songs of Cole Porter. She then became a fixture at the Oak Room in the Algonquin Hotel, where she reached a pinnacle of critical acclaim performing the songbooks of major theater composers with the pianist William Roy. Among the most admired of her 21 albums were the songbook albums she recorded for DRG Records. In 1988 she was nominated for a Tony Award for best featured actress in a Broadway musical for her role as the owner of a speakeasy in Peter Allen’s “Legs Diamond.” More than a role model for other nightclub singers, she became a godmother to the cabaret scene and until very recently visited clubs many nights a week to support young talent in the field she loved. Her last memorable show at the Metropolitan Room, where she frequently performed during the last decade, was an evening of Brecht-Weill songs in 2008. Of her performance of “Surabaya Johnny,” from the album “Julie Wilson Sings the Kurt Weill Songbook,” the critic Will Friedwald wrote: “She fluctuates between bipolar extremes of love and hate in re-enacting what can only be described as a grandly dysfunctional relationship. It is as wrenching as the most powerful blues by Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday.” In a 1987 interview with the music critic and historian Whitney Balliett, Ms. Wilson named Holiday as her major influence. “No singer has ever moved me so much,” she said. “No one has ever had such pain and emotion in her singing. She is why I wear a gardenia in my hair every night.” An obituary on Tuesday about the singer and actress Julie Wilson, using information from her son, omitted a survivor. Besides her son Holt McCallany, Ms. Wilson is survived by a granddaughter.

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Julie Wilson lived 18 years longer than the average family member when died at the age of 90.

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