Isabel Bigley

Isabel Bigley (February 23, 1926 – September 30, 2006) was an American actress born in the Bronx, New York, whose Broadway career spanned from 1950 to 1953. Her mother, a concert singer, fostered her early musical development, and a high school music teacher arranged an audition that earned her a scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music in Manhattan. There she studied singing under Metropolitan Opera contralto Merle Alcock.

Bigley was performing as Laurey in the London production of Oklahoma! in 1950 when she was offered the role of Sarah Brown in the original Broadway production of Frank Loesser's Guys and Dolls. The character, known as the "mission doll," became one of her defining stage achievements. Her performance earned her both the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical and a Theatre World Award, both in 1951. In 1953, she returned to Broadway in the Rodgers and Hammerstein production Me and Juliet, playing Jeanie, a chorus girl in a role created specifically for her.

During the early years of television, Bigley appeared on programs including The Ed Sullivan Show and The Colgate Comedy Hour. On June 25, 1951, she was among the entertainers featured in a one-hour CBS broadcast that marked the beginning of nationally televised color television.

In 1953, Bigley married Lawrence R. Barnett, who was then president of the Music Corporation of America. She retired from performing in 1958 to raise their four sons and two daughters. Together, Barnett and Bigley made charitable contributions to arts education, including establishing a graduate program in arts policy and administration at Ohio State University. In 2005, Bigley was named chairwoman of the board of the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert, where she maintained a residence along with one in Los Angeles and Rancho Mirage. She died on September 30, 2006, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles from pulmonary disease at the age of 80. Her widower died on June 11, 2012, at the age of 98.