Sheila Sullivan

Sheila Rae Sullivan, born August 1, 1937, in Renton, Washington, is a Broadway actress and singer whose career spans stage, television, and film.

Before her Broadway work, Sullivan performed as a Tropicana girl at the Tropicana Hotel and Casino in 1957, at the time operated by mobster Johnny Roselli. During that period she also performed as a chorus girl on Eddie Fisher's opening night. In 1958, Sullivan wrote to Ned Root, head of publicity at Convair, volunteering to crew what would have been history's first spaceship. Root did not send her to space; he married her instead.

Sullivan's Broadway career ran from 1964 to 1969, encompassing credits in Golden Boy, George M!, and Play It Again, Sam. Her entry into Broadway came through Golden Boy, the Tony-winning musical starring Sammy Davis Jr., in which she served as understudy to Paula Wayne, who played Lorna Moon, the lead's love interest. The production made history with Broadway's first interracial kiss between Davis and Wayne, a moment that provoked a violent response: the billboard outside the Majestic Theater depicting the two performers was shot through with bullets. The show's producer, Hilly Elkins, was at the time in a relationship with Sullivan.

On March 25, 1965, Sullivan traveled to Montgomery, Alabama alongside cast members to participate in the third March to Montgomery in support of Martin Luther King Jr. After two days of severe weather, no sleep, and considerable upheaval, Sullivan crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge still wearing heels. The following day, Wayne called in sick for the first time, and Sullivan stepped into the leading role of Lorna Moon within hours of completing the march, making it her Broadway debut.

Sullivan's personal life during the Golden Boy period also included a dangerous episode involving Elkins, who broke into the apartment Sullivan shared with Corky Hale and violently attacked her, slamming her head against the floor. It was her neighbor Gloria Steinem who contacted the police, an intervention Sullivan has credited with saving her life.

Sullivan later married actor Robert Culp, and the two appeared together in several films, including Hickey & Boggs (1972), A Name For Evil (1973), Houston, We've Got a Problem (1974), and Give Me Liberty (1974).

In April 2023, Sullivan, who had lived in a one-room apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan for more than four decades, was served with eviction papers. Her neighbor, journalist Tina Dupuy, helped identify the source of the problem: a city agency that had been subsidizing Sullivan's rent had ceased making payments after a request for a status update went unanswered and unresolved. Once the administrative error was identified, the eviction was stopped.