Bebe Neuwirth - Biography

Beatrice "Bebe" Neuwirth (born December 31, 1958) is an American actress, singer and dancer. She has worked in television and is known for her portrayal of Dr. Lilith Sternin, Dr. Frasier Crane's wife (later ex-wife), on both the TV sitcom Cheers (in a starring role), and its spin-off Frasier (in a recurring guest role). On stage, she is also known for originating the role of Nickie in the revival of Sweet Charity, the role of Velma Kelly in the revival of Chicago (both for which she earned a Tony award) and for the role of Morticia Addams in The Addams Family musical.

Early life

Neuwirth was born in Princeton, New Jersey, the daughter of Russian American Sydney Anne, a painter, and German American Lee Paul Neuwirth, a mathematician. She has an older brother Peter, an actuary. Neuwirth is Jewish and attended Chapin School in New Jersey as well as Princeton Day School (New Jersey) of Princeton, but graduated from Princeton High School (a public school) in 1976. She began to study ballet at the age of five, and chose it as her field of concentration when she attended Juilliard in New York City in 1976 and 1977. During this period, she performed with the Princeton Ballet Company in Peter and the Wolf, The Nutcracker, and Coppélia and appeared in community theater musicals. Neuwirth always dreamed of becoming a ballet dancer; the only other career she seriously contemplated was being a veterinarian.

Personal life

Neuwirth's 1984 marriage to Paul Dorman ended in divorce. In 2009, she married Chris Calkins.

Neuwirth is more multi-faceted than her Cheers character Lilith Sternin, but admits they do have something in common. Like Lilith, Neuwirth admits being shy and socially awkward with limited interpersonal skills. She is not easy in groups, and the thought of a cocktail party where she must meet a lot of new people strikes terror in her soul. Neuwirth is a very cerebral intellectual, but although she may appear unapproachable and radiates callousness behind a wall of reserve, she is a loving, funny and giving person.

In 1986, she was introduced to pottery, and has immersed herself in that craft through the years. Besides this hobby, Neuwirth dances every day, which has been a ritual ever since she was a child. She rarely drinks alcohol, though occasionally enjoys a glass of champagne or wine at birthday parties, premieres or openings.

Neuwirth is an animal lover, and supports many animal organizations, including raising money to help stray cats and dogs.

Career

Theatre work

Neuwirth, who has been associated with the work of Bob Fosse, made her Broadway debut in the role of Sheila in A Chorus Line in 1980. She later appeared in revivals of Little Me (1982) Sweet Charity (1986), for which she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical, and Damn Yankees (1994). 1996 saw her play the role of Velma Kelly in the Broadway revival of Chicago. That role brought her her greatest stage recognition to date, and several awards including the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. Neuwirth would later return to the still-running revival of Chicago in 2006, this time in the role of Roxie Hart. She appeared in a musical revue Here Lies Jenny, that featured songs by Kurt Weill, sung and danced by Neuwirth and a four-person supporting cast, as part of an unspoken ambiguous story in an anonymous seedy bar possibly in Berlin in the 1930s. The show ran from May 7 through October 3, 2004, in the Zipper Theater in New York City. Here Lies Jenny was also presented by Neuwirth in San Francisco in 2005. In 2009, Neuwirth toured a one-woman cabaret show with pianist Scott Cady. The cabaret included music by Kurt Weill, Stephen Sondheim, Tom Waits, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, John Kander and Fred Ebb amongst others. In 2010, she returned to Broadway to create the role of Morticia Addams in the original production of The Addams Family opposite Nathan Lane.

Film and television

Her screen credits include Green Card, Bugsy, Say Anything..., Jumanji, Summer of Sam, Liberty Heights, Tadpole (for which the Seattle Film Critics named her Best Supporting Actress), The Associate, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Malice, The Big Bounce, The Faculty and Woody Allen's Celebrity.

On television, from 1986 to 1993 Neuwirth played Dr. Lilith Sternin, the conservatively dressed and emotionally repressed psychiatrist who married Dr. Frasier Crane on the hit comedy series Cheers. From the fourth to the seventh season, Neuwirth portrayed Lilith in a regular recurring role, and she appeared on the show as a main star from season eight to the final season, season eleven. Like Kelsey Grammer when he started on the show as Frasier Crane, she was not immediately given star billing in the opening credits, but at the end for seasons eight and nine; she appeared in the opening credits with her own portrait in seasons ten and eleven. She auditioned for this role with her arm in a sling, following a fall a week earlier. She won two Emmy Awards for the role, in 1990 and 1991. The character also made an appearance in the series Wings and in 11 episodes of the Cheers spin-off Frasier, which earned her a 1995 Emmy Award nomination as Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. Her additional small screen credits include a guest appearance in the first season of NewsRadio on an episode called "Friends", voicing the villainess Mirage, a recurring character in the spin-off television series from Disney's Aladdin, a small role on The Adventures of Pete and Pete (episode: "The Call"), Deadline (2000), Hack (2003), Law & Order: Trial by Jury in (2005), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 1999 as a modeling agent/suspect, and again in 2005 as A.D.A Tracey Kibre, as well as the miniseries Wild Palms and an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. She has appeared as herself in episodes of Will and Grace, Strangers with Candy and Celebrity Jeopardy!. She also had a small role in An Extremely Goofy Movie in which she voices Sylvia Marpole, the college librarian and Goofy's new love interest. In 2009, she co-starred as Ms. Kraft in the remake of Fame. She currently has a recurring role as Caroline, the literary editor of Jonathan Ames, on the HBO series Bored to Death, which also stars Cheers co-star Ted Danson.

External links

• Bebe Neuwirth – Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing.org
• Star File: Bebe Neuwirth at Broadway.com