Marcia Lewis

Marcia Lewis (August 18, 1938 – December 21, 2010) was an American actress and singer born in Melrose, Massachusetts, and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. Before pursuing a career in performance, Lewis trained as a registered nurse, earning her RN from Jewish Hospital School of Nursing in Cincinnati in 1959. She subsequently worked at the University of Cincinnati Hospital in Ohio and at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.

Lewis made her Broadway debut in the original production of Hello, Dolly!, taking over the role of Ernestina. Her Broadway career spanned four decades, from 1964 to 2004, and encompassed a wide range of productions. She took over the role of Miss Hannigan in Annie in April 1981 and appeared in The Time of Your Life in 1969. Her other Broadway credits include Rags in 1986, Roza in 1987, and the drama Orpheus Descending in 1989, the latter featuring Vanessa Redgrave. Lewis also appeared in the 1990 revival of Fiddler on the Roof as Golde.

Lewis earned two Tony Award nominations for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. The first came in 1994 for her portrayal of Miss Lynch in the revival of Grease, and the second in 1997 for her role as the Matron in the 1996 revival of Chicago. Her work in Chicago and Rags also brought her two Drama Desk Award nominations for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical. Beyond Broadway, Lewis toured in Cabaret as Fraulein Schneider and performed in Chicago at the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas for three months.

Her Off-Broadway appearances included An Impudent Wolf at the Theatre of the Zanies in 1965, Who's Who Baby? at the Players Theatre in 1968, Romance Language at Playwrights Horizons in 1984, and When She Danced at Playwrights Horizons in 1990. Her television work included guest appearances on The Bob Newhart Show, Baretta, The Bionic Woman, and Happy Days, as well as the television movie When She Was Bad in 1979 and Kate and Allie in 1988.

As a cabaret and concert performer, Lewis sang at numerous prominent Manhattan venues, among them Rainbow & Stars, Reno Sweeney's, The Village Gate, Town Hall, and the Russian Tea Room, and she also appeared in concert at Carnegie Hall. In 1998, she released a solo album titled Nowadays, a collection of showtunes and standards recorded with the Mark Hummel Quartet and issued on the Original Cast Records label.

Lewis married Fred D. Bryan, a Nashville financial adviser, on June 24, 2001. She died on December 21, 2010, at her home in Brentwood, Tennessee, of cancer, at the age of 72. Bryan survived her.