Groovy Gal: Bernadette Peters

I got to know actress Bernadette Peters in three different stages. The first one was from her television work, beginning with her 12 guest appearances on The Carol Burnett Show. I also liked her in two 1975 roles as Walter's young date on an episode of Maude and as a sexy college student on All in the Family. I enjoyed her as well on the short-lived Norman Lear sitcom, All's Fair (1976-77), in which she played the liberal photographer girlfriend of an older conservative political writer. She and her co-star, Richard Crenna, had great chemistry together, and she was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance.

The second stage was from Ms. Peters' film work, which included Mel Brooks' 1976 movie, Silent Movie (for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe), 1979's The Jerk and 1981's Pennies from Heaven (with her then boyfriend, Steve Martin), 1982's Annie, 1989's Slaves of New York, and 1991's Impromptu.

Then in 1991 after I discovered musical theater at the ripe old age of 27, I realized the talented lady had a stage career that I wasn't even aware of. I later saw her in The Goodbye Girl (1993) and Gypsy (2003), but my favorite musical performance of hers remains Mabel Normand in Jerry Herman's Mack & Mabel (1974), for which she was nominated for a Tony Award.

Today is Bernadette Peters' 61st birthday, and she's still as active as ever with recent appearances on TV's Grey's Anatomy and Ugly Betty. She can do it all--TV, movies, musicals--and I've enjoyed every stage of her groovy career.

Here are 10 Groovy Facts about Ms. Peters:

1) She was born Bernadette Lazzara to an Italian-American family in Queens, New York, and her mother started her in show business by putting her on the television show, Juvenile Jury, at the age of three-and-a-half.

2) In January 1958, at age nine, she obtained her Actors Equity Card in the name of Bernadette Peters (taken from her father's first name) to avoid ethnic stereotyping.

3) At age 13, Peters appeared as one of the "Hollywood Blondes" and was an understudy for "Dainty June" in the second national tour of Gypsy (the following year she played the role in summer stock).

4) She made her Broadway debut in the play, Johnny No-Trump, which opened and closed at the Cort Theatre on October 8, 1967. The show also starred James Broderick and Sada Thompson (who later acted together again on TV's Family).

5) Peters' performance as "Ruby" in the 1968 off-Broadway musical spoof, Dames at Sea, brought her critical acclaim and her first Drama Desk Award. She received her first Tony Award nomination as Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her role as "Hildy" in the 1971 revival of On the Town.

6) She won the Golden Globe Award as Best Motion Picture Actress in a Comedy or Musical for 1981's Pennies From Heaven. Her romantic relationship with co-star, Steve Martin, lasted four years (1977 to 1981).

7) Peters appeared on the cover and in a spread in the December 1981 issue of Playboy magazine, in which she posed in lingerie designed by Bob Mackie.

8) She has been nominated for the Tony Award seven times and won twice for Andrew Lloyd Webber's Song and Dance (1985) and the 1999 revival of Annie Get Your Gun.

9) In March 2005, she made a TV pilot with Christine Baranski called Adopted, but the ABC sitcom was not picked up. The two women played the adoptive and birth mothers of a writer. And in May 2006, she appeared as the sharp-tongued sister of Karen Walker on the TV series, Will & Grace.

10) In 1999 Peters and her friend, Mary Tyler Moore, founded "Broadway Barks", an annual animal charity event held in New York City to promote the adoption of shelter animals. To support this cause, Peters wrote a children's book, Broadway Barks, in 2008.

I leave you now with a quote from the lady herself:

"You gotta be original, because if you're like someone else, what do they need you for?"

Bernadette Peters is definitely an original--and a very groovy gal.