Carole Shelley

Carole Augusta Shelley (16 August 1939 – 31 August 2018) was an English actress who made her career in the United States and United Kingdom. Her many stage roles included originating the roles of Gwendolyn Pigeon in The Odd Couple and Madame Morrible in Wicked. She won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in The Elephant Man and received additional nominations for her work on Absurd Person Singular (1975), Stepping Out (1987), and Billy Elliot (2009).

Early life Shelley was born in London, England, the daughter of Deborah ( Bloomstein), an opera singer of Russian Jewish descent, and Curtis Shelley, a composer of German Jewish origin. Her father had emigrated to London before World War II. She reprised the role for the 1968 film version (with Jack Lemmon replacing Carney), and the first season of the subsequent television series (starring Tony Randall and Jack Klugman). She and Monica Evans, who co-starred as her sister Cecily Pigeon, were the only two performers to appear in the original play The Odd Couple and both the film and original television adaptation—and in the same roles.

In the 1970s, Shelley wanted to extend her range, feeling she was not using all her capabilities as an actor. She told The New York Times in a 1979 interview that she had "months of the most intensive deep-water swimming — more than I’d ever been called upon to do in my life" when she played Rosalind in As You Like It at the 1972 Stratford Festival in Ontario. She received her first Tony Award nomination in 1975 for her performance as "Jane" in Absurd Person Singular. In 1982 she won an Obie Award for her performance Twelve Dreams. Shelley also began appearing in musicals in the late 1990s, with the revivals of Show Boat as Parthy and Cabaret as Fraulein Schneider in 1999.

In 2003, Shelley debuted the role of Madame Morrible in the original Broadway cast of Wicked, in the 2006 Chicago production, and in a return Broadway engagement in 2007.

Shelley played the role of Grandma in the Broadway production of Billy Elliot at the Imperial Theatre, beginning performances in October 2008. She was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical in 2009. In 2014, she succeeded Jane Carr as Miss Shingle in A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, which would mark her final Broadway appearance. Thereafter she took on numerous roles in television and films such as The Boston Strangler (1968), Some Kind of a Nut (1969), The Road to Wellville (1994), and she played Helen Moskowitz in the Emmy-winning 1998 Frasier episode "Merry Christmas, Mrs. Moskowitz".

She was featured as "Aunt Clara" alongside Nicole Kidman and former Wicked co-star Kristin Chenoweth in the 2005 film Bewitched. She lent her voice to several roles in Disney animated films; notably, Amelia Gabble (the Goose) in The Aristocats (1970), Lady Kluck, Maid Marian's sidekick and lady-in-waiting, in Robin Hood (1973), and Lachesis the Fate in Hercules. Shelley's "sister" co-star in all three versions of The Odd Couple, Monica Evans, also played her "goose" sister in The Aristocats, Abigail Gabble, and Maid Marian in Robin Hood as a nod to their roles as Pigeon Sisters.

Her final role was a cameo at the beginning of John Mulaney’s 2018 comedy special Kid Gorgeous; she played Mulaney’s guide around Radio City Music Hall.

Personal life In 1967, she was married to Albert G. Woods, who died in 1971.

Death Shelley died of cancer on August 31, 2018, at the age of 79 in Manhattan, New York.

Filmography Film

Television YearTitleRoleNotes 1961–1962 BBC Sunday-Night Play Betty Hobson Episodes: "A Fair Cop" and "A Clear Chase" 1963 The Dickie Henderson Show Elsie Partridge Episode: "The Maid" 1963 Laughter from the Whitehall Bernice Warren Episode: "High Temperature" 1985–1987 The Berenstain Bears Additional Female Voices (voice) 12 episodes 1991-1994 One Life to Live Babs Bartlett Unknown episodes 1998 Hercules Lachesis (voice) 3 episodesCredited as Carole Schelley 1998 Frasier Helen Moskowitz Episode: "Merry Christmas, Mrs. Moskowitz" 2000 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Judge Pamela Mizener Episode: "Nocturne" 2002 Third Watch Sister Rose Episode: "Cold Front" 2004 Scooter: Get a Clue! Aunt Eugenia (voice) Episode: "Here Comes the Shocker"

Stage + Year Title Role Notes 1965 The Odd Couple Gwendolyn Pigeon Plymouth Theatre, Broadway 1967 The Astrakhan Coat Barbara Helen Hayes Theatre, Broadway 1967 The White Lies Sophie/Baroness Lemberg Ethel Barrymore Theatre, Broadway 1967 Black Comedy Clea (Standby) Ethel Barrymore Theatre, Broadway 1968 Loot Fay Blitmore Theatre, Broadway 1968 Noel Coward's Sweet Potato Eve Ethel Barrymore Theatre, Broadway 1970 Hay Fever Jackie Coryton Helen Hayes Theatre, Broadway 1972 As You Like It Rosalind Stratford Festival, Ontario 1974 Absurd Person Singular Jane Music Box Theatre, Broadway 1975 The Norman Conquests Ruth Morosco Theatre, Broaday 1979 The Elephant Man Mrs. Kendal/Pinhead Booth Theatre, Broadway 1981 Double Feature Margaret Theater at St. Peter's Church, Off-Broadway 1982 Twelve Dreams Dorothy Trowbridge The Public Theater, Off-Broadway 1983 The Misanthrope Arsinoe Circle in the Square Theatre, Broadway 1983 Noises Off Dotty Otley (Replacement) Brooks Atkinson Theater, Broadway 1986 Jubilee Eva New Amsterdam Theater Company, Off-Broadway 1987 Stepping Out Maxine John Golden Theatre, Broadway 1990 The Miser Frosine Circle in the Square Theatre, Broadway 1994 Show Boat Parthy Ann Hawks (Replacement) Gershwin Theatre, Broadway 1994 Lady in the Dark Performer New York City Center, Off-Broadway 1997 The Last Night of Ballyhoo Boo Levy (Replacement) Helen Hayes Theatre, Broadway 1999 Cabaret Fraulein Schneider (Replacement) Roundabout Theatre, Broadway 2003 Wicked Madame Morrible Gershwin Theatre, Broadway 2008 Billy Elliiot the Musical Grandma Imperial Theatre, Broadway 2014 A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder Miss Shingle (Replacement) Walter Kerr Theatre, Broadway 2016 My Fair Lady Mrs. Higgins Bay Street Theatre, Off-Broadway