Carolyn Mignini

Carolyn Mignini is a Baltimore-born actress, singer, and performer whose Broadway career spans 1964 to 2019. One of six children, she was raised by her mother Virginia, a hairdresser, and her father Paul, a Purple Heart recipient who later served as a legislative representative of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union. Mignini began formal vocal training at age thirteen at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, and at seventeen was crowned Miss Teenage America. During that tenure she co-hosted the CBS World's Fair Special and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, made appearances on The Mike Douglas Show and To Tell the Truth, and served as a representative for Dr. Pepper alongside Dick Clark. She subsequently pursued further education at Boston Conservatory of Music and New York University.

Mignini made her Broadway debut in the original run of Fiddler on the Roof, a production that also featured Adrienne Barbeau and Bette Midler, and she later participated in the show's 50th anniversary tribute at New York's Town Hall. Among her most prominent stage credits is the Broadway and Los Angeles production of the revue Tintypes, in which she portrayed Anna Held. The role earned her a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical in 1980, and Time magazine noted her "seraphic soprano." Her performance was captured in a caricature by Al Hirschfeld. The Tintypes cast appeared on The Tony Awards and The Kennedy Center Honors, recorded an original cast album, and the production was filmed for television. Mignini also starred in Guys and Dolls on Broadway and appeared in the productions Tricks and Christopher Durang's A History of the American Film. In 2019 she returned to Broadway as Assunta in the Marisa Tomei-led revival of Tennessee Williams' The Rose Tattoo.

Her off-Broadway work includes A.R. Gurney's Middle Ages, Christopher Durang's Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You, the Dorothy Fields revue A Lady Needs a Change, The Fantasticks, I Married Wyatt Earp, Hereafter, Master Class in the role of Maria Callas, Hard Sell, Mirandolina, Legs, and multiple productions at Ensemble Studio Theatre. Regionally, Mignini appeared in the pre-Broadway tryout of One Night Stand with Tony Curtis, as well as Because of Winn-Dixie, Dirt, A String of Pearls, and Death of a Salesman. She also served as music director of a Los Angeles revival of Kurt Weill's Happy End.

Mignini's television work includes recurring roles as Maggie Gyllenhaal's mother on The Deuce and in Ben Stiller's Escape at Dannemora. She played the character Kathy, along with numerous other roles, on Captain Kangaroo, and the show's star Bob Keeshan wrote in his memoir that she could "sing, dance, act, be funny and anything else you ask of her." Additional television appearances span House of Cards, Blue Bloods, The Good Wife, Veep, Alien Nation, Mad About You, The Wonder Years, Murphy Brown, Picket Fences, Family Ties, 21 Jump Street, Fame, and Newhart, among others. Her film credits include Worth with Michael Keaton, Bruce, If I Ever See You Again, and Backfield in Motion.

Mignini was also a member of the musical group The Klowns, whose album was released by RCA Victor. The group appeared on an ABC primetime special alongside Sammy Davis Jr., Jerry Lewis, Juliet Prowse, and Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. She is married to actor Steve Vinovich, and they have two children.