M'el Dowd

M'el Dowd, born Mary Ellen Dowd on February 2, 1933, in Chicago, Illinois, was an American actress and singer whose work encompassed stage, film, and television across more than five decades. She died on September 26, 2012, at her home in Tarrytown, New York, at the age of 79.

Dowd grew up in Chicago as the daughter of John J. Dowd and Catherine (née O'Conner) Dowd. In 1945, the family relocated to Boone, Iowa, where she attended junior high and high school. It was during those years that she acquired the nickname "Mel," which an agent later stylized as M'el. Following high school, she returned to Chicago to study at the Goodman Theatre before eventually settling in New York City. In 1962, she married Henri G. Eudes, a French-born restaurateur, with whom she had one son, Richard.

Her professional stage career began Off-Broadway in the 1950s, where she took on a series of Shakespearean roles at the Jan Hus Theatre in New York City, including Lady Macbeth in 1955, Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet in 1956, and Portia in Julius Caesar in 1957. She also earned recognition in regional theatre for her portrayal of Katherine of Aragon in The Royal Gambit.

Dowd's Broadway career extended from 1958 to 1972 and included some of her most prominent work. She originated the role of Lilith in Back to Methuselah in 1958 at the Ambassador Theatre, and most notably created the role of Morgan le Fay in the long-running musical Camelot, which ran from 1960 to 1963. She served as understudy for the role of Princess Kosmonopolis in Sweet Bird of Youth at the Martin Beck Theatre from 1959 to 1960, and played Anita Corcoran in A Case of Libel at the Longacre Theatre from 1963 to 1964. Her role as Mrs. Emilia Pattison in The Right Honourable Gentleman at the Billy Rose Theatre from 1965 to 1966 came in a production nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play. She played Louise in Everything in the Garden at the Plymouth Theatre during the 1967–68 season, Andromache in Tiger at the Gates at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in 1968, and Countess Aurelia in Dear World at the Mark Hellinger Theatre in 1969. Her final two Broadway credits were Maude Bodley in Not Now, Darling at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre in 1970 and Amelia Newsome in Ambassador at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in 1972. She also appeared as Elsa Schraeder in The Sound of Music at City Center Theatre in 1967 and as Hesione Hushabye in Heartbreak House at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., that same year.

Dowd continued performing in regional theatre well beyond her Broadway years. In 1985 she played Frau Fahrenkopf in The Night of the Iguana at the Morris Mechanic Theatre in Baltimore. At Goodspeed Musicals, she portrayed Madame Armfeldt in A Little Night Music in 2001 and Maria, Duchess of Dene, in Me and My Girl in 2003.

Her film career began in 1956 with a role in the Warner Bros. production The Wrong Man alongside Henry Fonda, followed by Man on Fire with Bing Crosby in 1957. She appeared in the 1977 television movie The Prince of Homburg, starring Frank Langella, and played Joyce Lehman in the 1986 film F/X. Her television work included guest appearances on series such as Flipper, Murder She Wrote, Third Watch, and Law & Order, where she appeared in 2005 in the episode "License to Kill." Alongside her acting career, Dowd also assisted her husband in the restaurant business.