Paula Kelly

Paula Alma Kelly (October 21, 1942 – February 8, 2020) was an American actress, singer, dancer, and choreographer whose work spanned theatre, film, and television across several decades. Born in Jacksonville, Florida, to Ruth and Lehman Kelly, a jazz musician, she was one of three daughters in the family. By the time she was six, the family had moved to the Harlem neighborhood of New York City. Kelly attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art, where she concentrated in music, before continuing her training at the Juilliard School of Music, where she studied dance under Martha Hill. She earned an M.S. degree from Juilliard in 1964 and subsequently performed as a soloist with major modern dance companies, including those led by Martha Graham, Donald McKayle, and Alvin Ailey.

Kelly's Broadway career began in 1964 with her debut in the musical Something More!, in which she played Mrs. Veloz alongside Barbara Cook. She returned to Broadway in The Dozens in 1969, then appeared in both Paul Sills' Story Theatre and Ovid's Metamorphoses in 1971. Her final Broadway credit came in 1981 with Sophisticated Ladies, a production built around the music of Duke Ellington, in which she appeared alongside Gregory Hines and Phyllis Hyman.

Beyond Broadway, Kelly accumulated a substantial record of stage work in other venues. She appeared in the London production of Sweet Charity with Juliet Prowse, earning the London Variety Award for Best Supporting Actress. At the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, she starred in the record-breaking west coast premiere of Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope, a performance that brought her the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, a Variety award, and the first of three NAACP Image Awards she would receive over the course of her career.

Kelly's television work included guest choreographer and performer credits on numerous musical specials, among them Sammy and Friends, starring Sammy Davis Jr.; Quincy Jones' tribute to Duke Ellington, We Love You Madly; The Richard Pryor Show; and Gene Kelly's New York, New York, in which she and Gene Kelly performed a duet together. She also served as co-choreographer on the BBC production of Peter Pan, in which she additionally played the role of Tiger-Lily. In 1983, Kelly joined the cast of the sitcom Night Court in the regular role of Liz Williams during its first season, a performance that earned her an Emmy Award nomination. She received a second Emmy nomination for her portrayal of one half of a lesbian couple, alongside Lonette McKee, in the Oprah Winfrey-produced television miniseries The Women of Brewster Place, based on Gloria Naylor's 1982 novel. Kelly also guest-starred in a range of television series, including Sanford and Son, Kojak, Police Woman, Good Times, The Golden Girls, and Any Day Now.

Her film credits included the Bob Fosse-directed adaptation of Sweet Charity, as well as The Andromeda Strain, Soylent Green, The Spook Who Sat by the Door, Uptown Saturday Night, Lost in the Stars, Jo Jo Dancer Your Life Is Calling, Drop Squad, and Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored. In 1969, Kelly performed a dance solo at the 41st Academy Awards for the nominated title song from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. That same year, she appeared in a pictorial in the August 1969 issue of Playboy magazine, photographed by Lawrence Schiller.

In her personal life, Kelly married British film director Don Chaffey on September 15, 1985. Chaffey died in November 1990. From 2003, her partner was George Parkington. Kelly died of heart failure on February 8, 2020, at the age of 77.