Marilyn Cooper

Marilyn Cooper (December 14, 1934 – April 22, 2009) was an American actress born in New York City to Ashkenazi Jewish parents, Benjamin Cooper and Edna Becker. Her great-aunt was the vaudeville star Belle Baker, whose career Cooper credited as an inspiration for her own pursuit of performing. Cooper went on to build a Broadway career spanning four decades, from 1956 to 1996.

Cooper entered Broadway in the chorus of Mr. Wonderful in 1956, followed by a chorus role in a revival of Brigadoon. In 1957, she appeared in the original Broadway production of West Side Story, playing Rosalia, a Sharks girl whose defining moment came in the number "Puerto Rico." Two years later, she originated the ensemble role of Agnes, leader of the Hollywood Blondes, in the original Broadway production of Gypsy. Before departing that production, she briefly understudied the role of Louise and performed the part for one performance without the benefit of having rehearsed Act 2. By 1962, Cooper had advanced to a leading role, playing the ingenue in I Can Get It for You Wholesale opposite Elliott Gould and Sheree North — a production also notable as Barbra Streisand's Broadway debut at age 19.

Her subsequent Broadway appearances included Hallelujah, Baby!; Golden Rainbow, during which she understudied and performed for Eydie Gorme; and Mame, where she succeeded Helen Gallagher as Agnes Gooch near the end of the original run. She appeared in Two by Two, starring Danny Kaye and Madeline Kahn, and in the 1971 revival of On the Town as Lucy Schmeeler. She also appeared in A Teaspoon Every Four Hours and Michael Bennett's Ballroom, starring Dorothy Loudon.

The defining role of Cooper's career came in 1981, when she originated the part of Jan Donovan — the wife of Lauren Bacall's character's ex-husband Larry — in Woman of the Year. Though her character sang only one number, the duet "The Grass Is Always Greener" alongside Bacall, the performance earned Cooper both the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical. She subsequently toured the United States with Bacall in the national tour of Woman of the Year, and later reprised the role of Jan Donovan in a separate national touring production starring Barbara Eden, which ran from April 3, 1984, through September 16, 1984.

In 1985, Cooper appeared in Neil Simon's female version of The Odd Couple. The following season she contributed a vocal cameo as a radio actress in Simon's Broadway Bound, which starred Linda Lavin. Cooper's voice is preserved on the original Broadway cast recordings of West Side Story, I Can Get It for You Wholesale, Two by Two, and Woman of the Year. She also performed in productions of Fiorello!, One Touch of Venus, and Do Re Mi as part of New York City Center's Encores! series.

Beyond the stage, Cooper accumulated television credits that included Alice, Kate and Allie, Cheers — in which she played Betty, the mother of Lilith Sternin — Law and Order, The Nanny, and Caroline in the City. She also held a featured role alongside Tony Roberts and Kelly Bishop in the short-lived television series The Thorns. Cooper died on April 22, 2009, at the Actors Fund Home in Englewood, New Jersey, following a long illness.