Lola Falana

Loletha Elayne Falana, born September 11, 1942, in Camden, New Jersey, is an American singer, dancer, and actress who performed on Broadway between 1964 and 1975. The third of six children, she was raised by her father Bennett, an Afro-Cuban who had emigrated from Cuba to serve in the U.S. Marine Corps before working as a welder, and her mother Cleo, an African-American seamstress who lived from 1921 to 2010. The family relocated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1952. Falana began dancing at age three and was singing in a church choir by age five. During her junior high school years, her mother accompanied her to nightclubs where she danced professionally. She later left Germantown High School before graduation, against her parents' wishes, and moved to New York City to pursue a performance career.

Her professional trajectory began in 1958, when she was sixteen and earned her first dancing engagement as an opening act during a Dinah Washington nightclub appearance in Philadelphia. Washington, known as the Queen of Blues, played a formative role in Falana's early development. While performing in a chorus line in Atlantic City, New Jersey, she was discovered by Sammy Davis Jr., who cast her in his 1964 Broadway musical Golden Boy. That same year, following the production, Falana launched her recording career. Her debut single, "My Baby," was released on Mercury Records in 1965. She later recorded under Frank Sinatra's Reprise label.

Davis continued to shape Falana's career through the late 1960s, casting her alongside himself, Ossie Davis, and Cicely Tyson in the 1966 film A Man Called Adam, in which she played the character Theo. Beginning in 1966, Falana established herself as a major star of Italian television, and from 1967 onward appeared in Italian cinema as well, becoming fluent in the language while making three films there. Her first Italian film, Lola Colt, was regarded as a Spaghetti Western. She also performed on the Italian television program Sabato sera alongside singer Mina and became known in that country as the "Black Venus." During this period she continued touring with Davis as a singer and dancer and reprised her role in Golden Boy during its London revival. In 1969, she ended her close professional collaboration with Davis, though the two remained friends.

Falana made her American film debut in 1970 in The Liberation of L.B. Jones, a performance for which she received a Golden Globe Award nomination for New Star of the Year – Actress. That same year she married Feliciano "Butch" Tavares Jr., one of the five brothers of the R&B vocal group Tavares; the marriage ended in divorce in 1975. American television audiences became more widely acquainted with Falana in the early 1970s through frequent appearances on The Joey Bishop Show and The Hollywood Palace. On September 11, 1972, her thirtieth birthday, she became the first supporting player hired by Bill Cosby for his variety program The New Bill Cosby Show. Cosby had first encountered Falana when she was a teenager dancing in Philadelphia nightclubs during his early years as a comedian. Throughout the mid-1970s she made guest appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Flip Wilson Show, Laugh-In, and The Muppet Show, and also starred in her own television specials.

In 1975, Falana returned to Broadway in the musical Doctor Jazz, playing the role of Edna Mae Sheridan. Although the production closed after five performances, her work earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical as well as the Theatre World Award, both in 1975. That same year, her disco recording "There's A Man Out There Somewhere" reached number 67 on the Billboard R&B chart.

With Davis's assistance, Falana built a prominent Las Vegas career, performing to sold-out audiences at The Sands, The Riviera, and the MGM Grand. By the late 1970s she was regarded as the "Queen of Las Vegas" and was the highest-paid female performer in the city, eventually receiving an offer of $100,000 per week from The Aladdin. Her Las Vegas show ran twenty weeks annually. She later joined the cast of the CBS soap opera Capitol, playing Charity Blake, a wealthy entertainment mogul.

In June 1987, Falana suffered a severe relapse of multiple sclerosis that left her left side paralyzed, partially blind, and with impaired voice and hearing. Her recovery lasted approximately a year and a half. She converted to Catholicism in 1988 and has attributed her recovery to a spiritual experience. Following a second bout with multiple sclerosis in 1996, she returned briefly to Philadelphia to live with her parents. Her last known musical performance took place in 1997 at Wayne Newton's theater in Branson, Missouri. In 1995, she had recorded the song "Don't Cry, Mary" with Catholic artist Joseph Lee Hooker. Falana subsequently founded The Lambs of God Ministry, an apostolate based in Las Vegas focused on children orphaned in Sub-Saharan Africa, working in conjunction with the organization Save Sub-Saharan Orphans.