Mimi Hines

Mimi Hines (July 17, 1933 – October 21, 2024) was a Canadian actress, singer, and comedian, best known for her appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show and her work on Broadway. She succeeded Barbra Streisand in the original production of Funny Girl.

Life and career Hines was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on July 17, 1933, the daughter of Eugene Saborne and Lillian Hines. Her parents split when she was young, and she used her mother's surname. She worked for a time in Anchorage, Alaska, where she met comedian Phil Ford in 1952 while they were working at different night clubs. They married in 1954 and divorced in 1972. On August 28, 1958, she and Ford appeared on The Tonight Show for the first time. Hines sang "Till There Was You". In a later stand-up routine on The Tonight Show, she portrayed the NBC peacock. In 1959 she sang several of the numbers on the Juan García Esquivel-Ray Martin Christmas song collaboration, The Merriest of Christmas Pops (RCA Victor).

In 1964, Hines and Ford filmed a pilot episode for a potential sitcom, Mimi, that would have starred the two as owners of a resort hotel, but the series was not picked up for airing.

In 1965, she and Phil Ford starred in the obscure comedy Saturday Night Bath In Apple Valley, which was long-forgotten until Something Weird Video unearthed it and issued it on home video for the first time. It was directed by actor John Myhers and also starred Cliff Arquette and Joan Benedict.

On December 27, 1965, Hines succeeded Barbra Streisand on Broadway in Funny Girl, performing the role for eighteen months until the show's New York closing on July 1, 1967, after which she starred in touring companies of I Do! I Do! and The Prisoner of Second Avenue, as well as productions of Anything Goes, Never Too Late, The Pajama Game, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, No, No, Nanette and Sugar.

She played at Feinstein's at the Regency in New York City. She appeared with the Los Angeles Pops Orchestra and starred in national tours of Sugar Babies and Nite Club Confidential and on a recorded salute to Johnny Mercer called Mostly Mercer.

She toured the world for a year in the title role of Hello, Dolly! and starred in productions of A Majority of One and Can-Can in Florida and in revues featuring the songs of Alan and Marilyn Bergman, How Do You Keep the Music Playing? in Los Angeles, as well as the songs of Rodgers and Hart titled This Funny World at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and the songs of Jerry Herman at the Schoenberg Theatre in Los Angeles, California.

She co-starred in 2002 as Sister Mary Amnesia in the National Tour of the 20th Anniversary production of Nunsense, along with Kaye Ballard, Georgia Engel, Lee Meriwether, and Darlene Love. In 2007, Hines starred in the City Center Encores! production of Follies in New York City.

Hines died in her Las Vegas home on October 21, 2024, at age 91 from natural causes. A celebration of Mimi’s life, career, and marriage was held January 21, 2025, to coincide with the ceremony to unveil Hines and Ford's Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars.

Discography Mimi Hines Sings (Decca Records, 1966) Mimi Hines is a Happening (Decca Records, 1966) Mimi (Custom Fidelity Records)

Sidework The Merriest of Christmas Pops, singing on tracks with Ray Martin and his orchestra (RCA Victor, 1959)