Barbara McNair

Barbara Jean McNair (March 4, 1934 – February 4, 2007) was an American singer and actress born in Chicago, Illinois, whose career in music, theater, television, and film extended across more than five decades. Raised with encouragement from her parents, McNair sang in school productions and church services from an early age and graduated from Washington Park High School in 1952. She subsequently studied music at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago before briefly enrolling at UCLA, which she left after one year to pursue her performing career.

McNair entered the professional music world in the late 1950s through the nightclub circuit. In 1958 she released her debut single, "Till There Was You," on Coral Records, a commercially successful recording that coincided with her Broadway debut that same year in The Pajama Game. Her stage work continued with appearances in The Beautiful Bait and, in the early 1960s, in Nat King Cole's Broadway productions I'm with You and The Merry World of Nat King Cole, with whom she also toured internationally. Her Broadway career culminated in No Strings, with her final Broadway credit coming in 1973.

McNair recorded prolifically throughout the 1960s, releasing albums on Coral, Warner Bros., and Motown, among other labels. Her Motown output included Here I Am (1966) and The Real Barbara McNair (1969). By the late 1960s she had expanded substantially into film and television, appearing in Change of Habit (1969) alongside Elvis Presley and taking on the recurring role of Valerie Tibbs opposite Sidney Poitier in They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (1970) and its sequel The Organization (1971). Her television credits included Hogan's Heroes (1967) and McMillan & Wife (1972).

McNair was married five times and had no children. Her first marriage, to Earl Wright, lasted from 1953 to 1955. She was subsequently married to Jack Rafferty from 1963 to 1971. In August 1972 she married Rick Manzie, who co-produced The Barbara McNair Show. That same October, McNair was arrested for heroin possession at a New Jersey Playboy Club after signing for a delivered package later found to contain drugs; she maintained she had no knowledge of the contents, and charges against her were dropped in April 1973 after Manzie was charged with the offense. Manzie was murdered at their Las Vegas home on December 15, 1976. Three years later, McNair married Ben Strahan in Las Vegas; they divorced in 1987, the same year she filed for bankruptcy with debts totaling $458,399. Her final marriage, to Charles Blecka, took place in 2006.

In the late 1970s McNair was briefly among the original members of the touring act Four Girls Four, alongside Rose Marie, Rosemary Clooney, and Margaret Whiting, before being replaced by Helen O'Connell. In her later years she returned to performing in nightclubs and on cruise ships and continued to reside in the Los Angeles area. McNair died in Los Angeles on February 4, 2007, following a seven-year battle with throat cancer. She was 72 years old.