Doretta Morrow

Doretta Morrow, born Doretta Marano on January 27, 1927, in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, New York, was an American actress, singer, and dancer whose stage career spanned the late 1940s through the 1950s. The daughter of Victor and Dolores Marano, she relocated with her family to Venice, Italy, at age two, where she began studying piano and singing. She did not acquire English until her teenage years. In 1943 the family returned to New York, and Morrow enrolled at New Utrecht High School, participating in the school's glee club. She subsequently studied singing with soprano Alice Zeppilli. Singer Vic Damone was her cousin.

Morrow's professional stage work began in 1945, when she was cast in Shooting Star, a musical that opened in Boston but never reached Broadway. Her Broadway debut came in 1946, when she replaced Ann Andre in the role of Gretchen in the revival of Victor Herbert's The Red Mill, ultimately playing the part for seventeen months. Her Broadway career from 1948 to 1953 is distinguished by her having originated roles in three consecutive successful musicals. In October 1948 she created the role of Kitty Verdun in Where's Charley?, introducing the song "My Darling, My Darling" in a duet with Byron Palmer and remaining with the production through its September 1950 closing. In March 1951 she originated the role of Tuptim in the Rodgers and Hammerstein production of The King and I, alongside Gertrude Lawrence and Yul Brynner. In that production she introduced "We Kiss in a Shadow" and "I Have Dreamed," both duets with Larry Douglas, as well as "My Lord and Master." She departed the production in late 1951 to appear in her only Hollywood film, Because You're Mine, in which she starred opposite Mario Lanza. Morrow returned to Broadway for the final time in 1953 to create the role of Marsinah in the original cast of Kismet, having previously performed the role at the show's world premiere in Los Angeles with the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, an occasion that marked the public introduction of "Baubles, Bangles, and Beads."

Beyond Broadway, Morrow's stage work extended to London and to national touring productions. In 1955 she portrayed Marsinah in the original West End production of Kismet. Two years later she took on the title role in the first national tour of Fanny. Her final stage appearance came in 1959, when she played the Princess in the original West End cast of Cole Porter's Aladdin.

Morrow was also active in television throughout the 1950s. She made her television debut in 1949 on The Ed Sullivan Show, returning to that program multiple times through 1958. Her television work included a 1950 live broadcast of the Kurt Weill musical Knickerbocker Holiday for Pulitzer Prize Playhouse, in which she played Tina Tienhoven; a 1951 television version of Miss Liberty for Musical Comedy Time, in which she portrayed Monique DuPont; and a 1952 CBS television adaptation of The Beggar's Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum. She starred in two live television musical specials: Once Upon an Eastertime in 1954 and The Adventures of Marco Polo, broadcast April 14, 1956, as part of the Max Liebman Spectaculars. She also appeared as a guest performer on variety programs including Cavalcade of Stars, The Voice of Firestone, Paul Whiteman's Goodyear Revue, The Arthur Murray Party, The Steve Allen Show, and the General Motors 50th Anniversary Show. Her final television appearance was in a 1959 episode of The Further Adventures of Ellery Queen.

In her personal life, Morrow was first married to Fred A. Miller, a cargo-airline executive; that marriage ended in divorce in 1955. She subsequently married Albert Hardman, an Englishman employed as an underwriter for Lloyd's of London, and the couple had one daughter. Morrow retired from performance in 1960 at the age of 33. She died in London on February 28, 1968, at the age of 41, from lymphoma, and was buried at Putney Vale Cemetery in London.