Sally Ann Howes

Sally Ann Howes, born on 20 July 1930 in St John's Wood, London, and died on 19 December 2021, was an English and American actress and singer whose career across film, stage, and television extended over six decades. She was the daughter of British comedian, actor, and singer Bobby Howes and actress and singer Patricia Malone. Her maternal grandfather was Captain J.A.E. Malone, a London theatrical director of musicals, and her great-grandfather, Captain Joseph Malone, received the Victoria Cross in 1854 at the Charge of the Light Brigade. Her brother, Peter Howes, became a professional musician and music professor, and her uncle, Pat Malone, worked as an actor in stage, film, and television. During World War II, the family relocated to a country house in Essendon, Hertfordshire. Neighbors and family friends included actor and writer Jack Hulbert and actress Cicely Courtneidge, as well as playwright and screenwriter Rodney Ackland.

Howes entered film at a young age after a family friend who worked as an agent recommended her for a role. That film, Thursday's Child (1943), written and directed by Ackland, launched her career. A second film, The Halfway House (1944), led to a contract with Michael Balcon at Ealing Studios, and she went on to appear in Dead of Night (1945) with Michael Redgrave, Pink String and Sealing Wax (1945), Nicholas Nickleby (1947), My Sister and I (1948), and Anna Karenina (1948) alongside Vivien Leigh. At eighteen, the Rank Organisation signed her to a seven-year contract, during which she made Stop Press Girl (1949), The History of Mr. Polly (1949) with John Mills, Fools Rush In (1949), and Honeymoon Deferred (1951). She married Maxwell Coker in 1950. Dissatisfied with the roles Rank assigned her and the practice of lending her to other studios, she terminated that contract and turned her attention to television, radio, and the stage.

On a teacher's recommendation, Howes took singing lessons to develop her voice, and while still a teenager made her first musical-comedy stage appearance in Fancy Free. She appeared in a BBC television production of Cinderella in late 1950 and that same year took her first professional stage role in the Sandy Wilson musical Caprice. This was followed by Bet Your Life, alongside Julie Wilson, Arthur Askey, and Brian Reece. In 1953, she starred in the West End production of Paint Your Wagon alongside her father, a run that lasted eighteen months, and subsequently appeared in Summer Song, also in the West End. A performance in the stage drama A Hatful of Rain further expanded her reputation. During the early to mid-1950s, her work extended into modelling, commercials, and product endorsements, and she appeared on numerous magazine covers.

Howes was offered a role in My Fair Lady twice before accepting: first for the American touring company, which she declined, and second to replace Julie Andrews on Broadway, which conflicted with her commitment to the film The Admirable Crichton (1957) with Kenneth More. When creators Lerner and Loewe approached her a third time, she accepted, taking on the role of Eliza Doolittle at a higher salary than Andrews and to considerable success. Her appearance on the cover of Life magazine on 3 March 1958 coincided with this Broadway engagement. In January 1958, she married Tony Award-winning composer Richard Adler, known for The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees. That December, she appeared in Adler's television musical adaptation of O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi, which he wrote expressly for her. Adler and Bob Merrill also collaborated on a musical version of W. Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage so that Howes could play the role of Mildred. When her My Fair Lady contract concluded, she returned to Britain to tape six one-hour installments of The Sally Ann Howes Show for ITV.

Howes's Broadway career, which spanned 1956 to 2007, included several notable productions. She returned to Broadway in 1961 to star in Kwamina, a musical Adler wrote for her, in which she appeared opposite Terry Carter. That same year she starred in an hour-long television adaptation of Jane Eyre. In 1962, she starred in a revival of Brigadoon at the New York City Opera opposite Robert Goulet, receiving a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical in 1963, recognized as the first performer to be nominated for a revival performance. She also recreated the role in a private White House performance at the invitation of President and Mrs. Kennedy. In 1964, she starred on Broadway in What Makes Sammy Run? opposite Robert Alda and Steve Lawrence, a production that ran for over 500 performances. A 1966 television production of Brigadoon, in which she again appeared alongside Robert Goulet and also Peter Falk, won six Emmy Awards. She later appeared on Broadway in James Joyce's The Dead, for which she received a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical in 2000.

Beyond Broadway, Howes is widely recognized for her role as Truly Scrumptious in the 1968 musical film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, in which she played the aristocratic daughter of a confectionery magnate. Prior to filming a dance sequence as a wooden doll, watched by 150 extras, she undertook a crash course in dance lessons; the scene was completed in a single take. She performed for three American presidents — Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson — and made multiple television appearances, including four appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and guest spots on programs hosted by Perry Como, Dinah Shore, and Jack Paar. She also appeared on The Bell Telephone Hour, The Kraft Music Hall, and The United States Steel Hour, and became a frequent panelist on game shows. Born in London, Howes built a career that moved fluidly between England and the United States, leaving a record across film, television, and the Broadway stage.