Barbara Nichols

Barbara Nichols, born Barbara Marie Nickerauer on December 10, 1928, in Queens, New York, was an American actress whose Broadway career spanned from 1952 to 1961. She is remembered for the brassy and comic supporting roles she brought to both stage and screen throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

Nichols began her career as a showgirl, during which time a club owner offered her a substantially higher salary to perform striptease. She turned down the offer in order to pursue acting. In the late 1940s she took up modeling for cheesecake magazines, a path that eventually positioned her as a minor rival to Marilyn Monroe.

Her Broadway work included two productions: the 1952 revival of Pal Joey and the 1961 musical Let It Ride. She reprised her connection to Pal Joey when she appeared in the 1957 film adaptation of the same material. In the mid-1950s, Nichols relocated to Hollywood and began accumulating a string of showy supporting roles. Her film credits from that period include Miracle in the Rain (1956), The King and Four Queens (1956), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), The Pajama Game (1957), The Naked and the Dead (1958), That Kind of Woman (1958), and Where the Boys Are (1960). Those productions placed her alongside actors including Clark Gable, Susan Hayward, Sophia Loren, and Doris Day. Among her rare leading roles was the 1965 science-fiction film The Human Duplicators. Her final screen appearance came in Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976).

Television also formed a significant part of Nichols's career. She made guest appearances on numerous series, among them The Jack Benny Television Show, The Twilight Zone, The Untouchables, Batman, Adam-12, Emergency!, Hawaii Five-O, Green Acres, and The Beverly Hillbillies, as well as It's a Great Life, The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, and Going My Way.

Nichols died on October 5, 1976, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The cause of death was liver failure resulting from complications of spleen and liver damage reportedly sustained in separate automobile accidents years earlier. She was 47 years old. She is interred at Pinelawn Memorial Park in Farmingdale, New York.