Georgia Brown

Georgia Brown (born Lilian Claire Klot; 21 October 1933 – 5 July 1992) was an English singer and actress.

Early life Georgia Brown, born Lilian Claire Klot, was born and raised in the East End of London. The daughter of Mark and Annie (née Kirshenbaum) Klot, Brown grew up in a large, extended Jewish family of Russian descent. Her father worked in a textile factory and as a bookmaker. Brown attended the Central Foundation Grammar School. During the London Blitz, she was evacuated to the mining village of Six Bells, Abertillery, Monmouthshire, Wales.

Career

During an initial performing career as a nightclub singer, she adopted the professional name Georgia Brown with reference to two of her favourite repertoire items: "Sweet Georgia Brown" and "Georgia on My Mind". and she then went into a number of stage presentations at the Empire, Leicester Square for three months. Brown made her first records, “A Friend of Johnny’s” and “Sweet Georgia Brown”, for Decca and they were released in May 1951. She returned to cabaret work at the Washington Club in London in January 1952 before recording thirteen shows for the American Forces Network in West Germany.

Brown was a flatmate of singer Annie Ross with whom she formed part of the vocal quartet known as Lambert, Hendricks, Ross & Brown. Brown then left the quartet, which became the trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross.

Brown maintained a low profile until she returned to the UK show business scene when she appeared on the BBC-TV show Variety Parade on 5 February 1955. Successful appearances in variety followed and she made another record for Decca, “My Crazy Li'l Mixed Up Heart”. Brown moved on into musical theatre; her breakout role was playing Lucy in the 1956 West End revival of The Threepenny Opera at the Royal Court Theatre, a role she repeated the following year when she joined the cast of the off-Broadway production.

Her breakthrough role was Nancy in Oliver!, a role she created in the original 1960 London production. This happened to be the same evening that the Beatles made their first live US appearance on the show. The role of Nancy in the film version went to Brown's friend Shani Wallis.

After a stint in Bart's Maggie May in 1965, Brown concentrated on screen work for more than a decade. Brown (and others) sang the theme song for the series, "The March of the Women", and she took the role of working class activist Annie Kenney, alongside Siân Phillips and Angela Down, as Emmeline and Sylvia Pankhurst, respectively.

The episode dealing most closely with Annie Kenney was written by Alan Plater, who had written the 1972 drama about Marie Lloyd (played by Brown) and her involvement in the 1907 music hall artistes' strike, in The Edwardians. Shoulder to Shoulder remains highly regarded as an attempt to convey an important episode both of feminist history and of Britain's history of dissent and civil disobedience.

In 1974, she appeared on BBC TV's The Good Old Days, recreating more music hall performances; in 1961, she had recorded an album of music hall songs, A Little of What You Fancy, with the Ted Heath Band.

Brown returned to Broadway to join the cast of the long-running revue Side by Side by Sondheim in October 1977, replacing Bonnie Schon. In 1979, she created the title role in Alan Jay Lerner and Burton Lane's unsuccessful musical Carmelina,

She toured Britain in Georgia Brown and Friends,

In 1984, she took the lead role of Dorothy Brock in the musical 42nd Street at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London. In 1987, the Gilbert Becaud musical Roza, Brown can be heard on the charity tribute CD Mack & Mabel in Concert (1988) in which she sings "Time Heals Everything".

In her later years, she limited herself to concerts, cabaret appearances, and guest spots on television series such as Great Performances, Murder, She Wrote and Cheers; she earned an Emmy Award nomination for her role as Carla Tortelli's spiritual adviser Madame Lazora in 1990, and reprised the role in 1991. She made two appearances in Star Trek: The Next Generation ("New Ground" and "Family") portraying Helena Rozhenko, Worf's adoptive mother.

Record releases Singles Brown recorded the single, "Don't Take Your Love from Me" bw "Roll Him Over" that was released in the US on London 45-9513. With "Roll Him Over" touted as the A side, it was noted as a Special Merit Single and was given four stars for both sides in the 20 January 1962 issue of Billboard. It was also reported the same week by Cash Box that the initial reaction to "Roll Him Over" had made Mike Collier excited, jumping for joy and he had embarked on an extensive road trip to promote Brown's single as well as "Midnight in Moscow" by Jan Burgens.

Albums In addition to a number of original cast albums, Brown recorded several solo albums, including Georgia Brown Sings Kurt Weill (Decca LK4509, accompaniment directed by Ian Fraser) and Georgia Brown Sings Gershwin.

Personal life In 1974, Brown married producer Gareth Wigan, with whom she had been involved for at least seven years; the couple married in order to expedite their immigration with their son Jonathan (then aged six) to the United States. Brown and Wigan separated in 1979, with their divorce becoming final in 1981 after protracted legal wrangling.

Death Brown died at the age of 58 in London on 5 July 1992. A permanent U.S. resident who lived in California, she had flown to London to appear on the bill for a tribute to Sammy Davis Jr. held that week at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

Before the date of the tribute she became ill and underwent emergency surgery to remove an intestinal obstruction at Charing Cross Hospital, where she died from complications. She was interred at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in California.