Vivienne Segal

Vivienne Sonia Segal was an American actress and singer born on April 19, 1897, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The elder daughter of Bernhard Segal, a physician, and Paula (née Hahn) Segal, she grew up alongside sisters Vera and Louise, all of whom were encouraged by their parents to pursue careers in show business. Her father's support extended to underwriting a local opera company to provide her with performance opportunities. Segal studied voice with Estelle Liebling, who also taught Beverly Sills. She died on December 29, 1992, in Beverly Hills, California, of heart failure at the age of 95, and was interred at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Segal began performing with the Philadelphia Operatic Society at the age of 15. Her Broadway debut came in 1915 with The Blue Paradise, a production her father financed. Over the following decades she accumulated an extensive list of Broadway credits, including My Lady's Glove and Miss 1917 (both 1917), Oh, Lady! Lady!! (1918), The Little Whopper (1919), A Dangerous Maid as a replacement (1921), The Yankee Princess (1922), Adrienne (1923), Florida Girl and Castles in the Air (both 1925 and 1926 respectively), The Desert Song (1926), The Three Musketeers (1928), The Chocolate Soldier (1931), and I Married an Angel (1938). In 1924 and 1925 she was a member of the Ziegfeld Follies. Beyond the stage, she appeared on the CBS Radio program Accordiana in 1934.

Segal is perhaps most closely associated with the role of Vera Simpson in the Rodgers and Hart musical Pal Joey, which opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on December 25, 1940, with a cast that included Gene Kelly and June Havoc. She originated the role and introduced the song "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" in that production. Because the original 1940 run was not recorded, a studio cast was assembled in 1950 to document the score. That recording was reissued on CD in 2003 by Columbia Broadway Masterworks, with bonus material including Segal performing "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" on the CBS Radio program Stage Struck, where she was interviewed by Mike Wallace and recalled Lorenz Hart's promise to write a show for her. Segal returned to Pal Joey in 1952 when the production was revived on Broadway, earning a Donaldson Award that year in the Best Performance–Actress (Musical Division) category.

Between the two Pal Joey productions, Segal starred as Morgan LeFay in the 1942 Broadway revival of the Rodgers and Hart musical A Connecticut Yankee. Lorenz Hart wrote the song "To Keep My Love Alive" specifically for her in that production, one of the last songs he composed. She subsequently appeared in Music in My Heart (1947) and Great to Be Alive! (1950), with her Broadway career spanning from 1915 to 1952.

In her personal life, Segal eloped with actor Robert Ames in 1923; the couple divorced three years later. In 1950 she married television executive Hubbell Robinson, Jr. Composer Stephen Sondheim identified Segal as a canasta companion of his mother, Etta Janet Fox Sondheim. Segal retired from acting in 1966 following a guest appearance on Perry Mason, in which she played Pauline Thorsen in the episode "The Case of the Tsarina's Tiara." She had also appeared in two episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, playing Gladys in a 1960 episode and Clara Shorup in a 1962 episode.