System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!Nancy Walker, Actress
May 10, 1922 – March 25, 1992
Born in 1921, in Pennsylvania, to vaudevillian parents, 4'11" entertainer Nancy Walker had wanted to establish herself as a serious singer. But when Nancy auditioned for Broadway impresario George Abbott, he burst out laughing at her reading of the line "Is this where the aliens go to register?" and immediately cast her as the blind date in his 1941 musical production Best Foot Forward. She went on to make her Hollywood debut in the film version of this production, then returned to Broadway, where she skyrocketed to stardom in such productions as On the Town (1944) and Look, Ma, I'm Dancin' (1948).
She continued headlining on Broadway throughout the 1950s, occasionally showing up on television variety series, most memorably as the teen-aged president of the Milton Berle fan club. When theatrical opportunities began drying up in the late 1960s, Nancy relied more and more on television for a living. She was featured as Rosie the waitress in a series of paper-towel commercials, co-starred as Mildred the maid on MacMillan and Wife (1971-75), and, most memorably, was cast as Ida Morgenstern, on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-77). She was an instant star when she appeared in episode 6 of the show. She went on to make two or three more appearances on the show, and was a regular on Rhoda (1974-78). Though nominated for five Emmies, she never won the coveted statuette, a fact that seemed to bother her husband David Craig (a vocal coach whom she'd met when she lost her voice during Look Ma, I'm Dancing) more than Walker.
In the late 1970's, she briefly left Rhoda to do her own show, "Blansky's Beauties", which co-starred a young Scott Baio. She also starred in "The Nancy Walker Show". She also directed the theatrical productions of UTBU and A Pushcart Affair. In 1980, Walker made her film directorial debut with the Village People starrer Can't Stop the Music, produced by her then-manager Alan Carr. Nancy Walker's final regular TV-series stint was on the 1990 Fox Network weekly True Colors; two years later, on March 25, 1992, she died of lung cancer at the age of 71.
