48 January 31 • 2019
jn

soul

of blessed memory

(JTA) — Actress Carol Channing,
who originated the starring role in
Hello Dolly! on Broadway and won a
Tony Award for her portrayal of the
boisterous widow, died Jan. 15, 2019.
She was 97.
Channing was the daughter of a
Jewish mother and a Christian father
and identified as “part Jewish.”
At 16, she learned that her father
was multi-racial, with an African-
American mother and a German
father.
She wrote in her memoir of
her five-year marriage to her first
husband, Theodore Naidish, that she
learned to speak fluent Yiddish from
his grandfather, Sam Cohen, who
lived in Brooklyn’
s Brighton Beach.
The Seattle native first became a
star playing flapper Lorelei Lee in
the 1949 production of Gentlemen
Prefer Blondes, where she sang the
iconic “Diamonds Are a Girl’
s Best

Friend.”
Channing played Dolly Levi in
Hello Dolly! winning the Tony in
1964. She played the role for the
last time in a 1995 revival. Barbra
Streisand was Dolly in the 1969 film
version and Bette Midler also won
a Tony for her portrayal in the 2017
Broadway revival.
Channing was recognized with
a Lifetime Achievement Tony
Award in 1995 and was inducted
into the American Theatre Hall
of Fame in 1981. She made guest
appearances on many television
shows including Sesame Street,
where she performed a parody of
Hello Dolly called “Hello Sammy,”
a love song to the Jim Henson
character Sammy the Snake.
She died of natural causes just
days before her 98th birthday.
Channing was married four times
and had one son. ■

continued from page 47

Carol Channing, the Original Star
of ‘
Hello Dolly!,’
Dies at 97

Carol Channing

He lent money to his close friend
Ariel Sharon, the late Israeli prime min-
ister, to buy the Sharon family’
s ranch
in southern Israel, according to Israel
National News.
His third wife, Tali Sinai-Riklis, said
in 2015 that Riklis had donated about
$190 million throughout his life to
Israeli charities and pro-Israel causes.
He also was married to the actress Pia
Zadora in 1977; they divorced in 1993.
Riklis had four children in total.
Riklis, in addition to producing the
1982 film Butterfly starring Zadora,
financed G.L.O.W.: Gorgeous Ladies of
Wrestling, a syndicated program fea-
turing women professional wrestlers.
It was the inspiration for the current
scripted series GLOW on Netflix, a
fictionalized account of Riklis’
creation,
which ran from 1986 to 1990.
Riklis was born in Istanbul, Turke
y,
to parents who were on their way from
Russia to prestate Israel. He moved
to the United States in 1947 when he
was 23 and later became a citizen. He
moved permanently to Israel about a
decade ago. ■

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