Bobo Lewis

Barbara "Bobo" Lewis (May 14, 1926 – November 6, 1998) was an American actress born in Miami, Florida, whose career spanned comedic film, musical theatre, stage, and television. She studied acting before establishing herself across multiple entertainment mediums over several decades.

Lewis made her Broadway debut in 1973 with The Women, in which she played the Dowager and Olga during its run from April 25 to June 17 of that year. The following year she joined the cast of Lorelei as Mrs. Ella Spofford in a replacement role, appearing from January 27, 1974 through November 3, 1974. Her most acclaimed Broadway work came in 1978 with Working, where she portrayed four characters — Fran Swenson, Grace Clements, Lucille Page, and Rose Hoffman — among them a teacher, during the production's run from May 14 to June 4. That performance earned her the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical. She also appeared in a replacement role in The Diviners in 1980. Lewis returned to Broadway in 1987 with The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940, playing Bernice Roth from April 6 through August 1, before joining 42nd Street as a replacement for Maggie Jones, a role she held from July 21, 1987 through January 8, 1989. In 1997, she received a Joseph Jefferson Award nomination.

Her film work included appearances in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), Under the Yum Yum Tree (1963), Way...Way Out (1966), Can't Stop the Music (1980), Arthur (1981), Her Alibi (1989), Miami Blues (1990), and The Paper (1994). On television, Lewis appeared in episodes of Bewitched, The Monkees, That Girl, and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. She became widely recognized for her recurring role as gossip Midge Smoot on the children's series Shining Time Station, remaining with the show throughout its entire run from 1989 to 1993 and returning for four Shining Time Specials in 1995.

Together with her Working co-star Lynne Thigpen, Lewis co-founded the Lynne Thigpen-Bobo Lewis Foundation, an organization created to help young actors and actresses learn to survive and succeed in New York theater. Lewis died on November 6, 1998, at New York Hospital in Manhattan from cancer at the age of 72.