Marilyn Michaels

Marilyn Michaels, born Marilyn Sternberg on February 26, 1943, in Manhattan, is a comedian, singer, actress, impressionist, author, and composer whose Broadway career spanned from 1965 to 1991. She was raised in a household steeped in performance: her mother, Fraydele Oysher, was a cantoress and actress, her father, Harold Sternberg, served as a senior basso with the Metropolitan Opera for 37 years, and her uncle was cantor and film actor Moishe Oysher. Michaels began appearing on the Yiddish stage alongside her mother at age seven, performing throughout Canada as well. By age fourteen she was singing as a soloist in her father and uncle's choir and recorded duets with Oysher on "Moishe Oysher's Chanukah Party."

Michaels attended the High School of Music & Art, initially as a music major before transferring to the art track in her sophomore year. While still in high school, she signed with Debbie Records, a label headed by Ray Rainwater, brother of country artist Marvin Rainwater. Her debut single, "Johnny Where Are You," was produced by Phil Ramone. She subsequently signed with RCA Victor under producers Hugo and Luigi, recording "Tell Tommy I Miss Him," the answer-song to Ray Peterson's hit "Tell Laura I Love Her," in both American and British versions. Additional recording contracts followed with Warner Brothers and ABC Paramount. During this period she made television appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Hollywood Palace, The Jackie Gleason American Scene Magazine, and NBC's Hullabaloo, sharing the bill with Sammy Davis Jr. She later appeared with Davis again on The Name of the Game, The Flip Wilson Show, and Sammy in Acapulco.

In 1965, following engagements at New York's Copacabana and venues in Las Vegas and London, Michaels took on the role of Fanny Brice in the National Company of Funny Girl, a production that also constitutes one of her Broadway credits. She performed the role for a full year and then reprised it six months after that run concluded, stepping in at the Westbury Music Fair in Long Island when Carol Lawrence was injured before her scheduled turn in the part. During the Funny Girl period, Michaels appeared on The Dean Martin Show, The Red Skelton Show, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and The Jonathan Winters Show.

In 1973, Michaels became the sole female performer in The Kopykats, an Emmy-nominated comedy series produced by Smith Hemion Productions for ABC's Kraft Music Hall. In 1981 she starred alongside Rich Little in a television commercial for the Diet 7 Up campaign. The following year, 1982, brought two additional projects: she worked with Debbie Reynolds on The Love Boat, and Woody Allen cast her in a cameo as Mae West in Zelig. Allen ultimately cut the segment, opting for documentary footage over an impression, and Michaels subsequently wrote about the experience, including photographs of herself in Allen's clothing, for US Weekly. Also in 1982, she appeared in a Playboy pictorial portraying Bette Midler, Bo Derek, Julie Andrews, Barbra Streisand, Donna Summer, Lily Tomlin, and Brooke Shields. In 1983, she provided five voices for the PBS series Reading Rainbow for the episode based on the book Gregory the Terrible Eater, and performed all the voices for the satirical audio book Frankly Scarlett, I Do Give a Damn!

Michaels made her Broadway debut at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre as a member of the original cast of Catskills on Broadway, a production that received the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Comedy. She subsequently performed in her own revue, Broadway Ballyhoo, at Harrah's in Atlantic City, and hosted the radio program The Broadway Hour on WEVD-AM in New York. She has written two articles for The New York Times addressing a proposed revival of Funny Girl, and composed the score and co-wrote the libretto, with her son Mark Wilk, for an original musical comedy titled Alysha.

Michaels was previously married to Isaac Ribatzky from 1968 to 1970. On October 5, 2008, she married her third husband, Steven Portnoff, in her Upper West Side apartment.