Two-time Tony winner Helen Gallagher passed away November 24, at the age of 98. News of her death was confirmed by her longtime colleagues at the Herbert Berghof Studio.
A marvelously talented actor, singer, and dancer, Ms. Gallagher enjoyed a stage career than spanned seven decades. A native New Yorker, Ms. Gallagher got her start on Broadway as a ballerina, performing in the corps of Seven Lively Arts and Mr. Strauss Goes to Boston, and in the original dancing ensembles of Billion Dollar Baby and Brigadoon. Her big break came in 1947, when Jerome Robbins cast her as Charleston-crazed Nancy in High Button Shoes, catapulting her from the chorus to the world of principal roles.
Ms. Gallagher won her first Tony in 1952 for her performance as the no-nonsense chorus girl Gladys Bumps in the 1952 revival of Pal Joey, starring opposite Harold Lang and Vivienne Segal. The very next year, she starred as the eponymous media darling in Hazel Flagg, kicking off an extended stretch of leading lady roles in Ms. Gallagher’s ouvre. In The Pajama Game she played the quick witted secretary Gladys Hotchkiss, Guys and Dolls gave her room to stretch her comedic chops as Miss Adelaide, and in back-to-back revivals of Finian’s Rainbow and Brigadoon, Ms. Gallagher played the lively lassies Sharon McLonergan and Meg Brockie, respectively.
In 1966, Ms. Gallagher originated the role of Nickie in Sweet Charity, earning a Tony nomination. Ms. Gallagher would go on to replace star Gwen Verdon in the lead role of Charity, later taking the show out on tour. In 1969, she replaced as Agnes Gooch in Mame, but it wasn’t until 1971 that her name would again be the toast of the town, winning her second Tony as well as a Drama Desk award for her performance as Lucille Early in the 1971 revival of No, No, Nanette. Her performance as the glamorous grand dame was universally celebrated, and Ms. Gallagher was, for a time, credited as one of the great harbingers of Broadway’s revival boon.
Outside of theatre, Ms. Gallagher portrayed the Irish matriarch Maeve Ryan on the ABC soap opera Ryan’s Hope, breathing life into the maternal force for the entirety of the program’s run from July 1975 to January 1989. For her efforts, Ms. Gallagher received three Daytime Emmy Awards. While working in television, Ms. Gallagher also taught voice and acting, serving as a private singing instructor out of her home, and as an acting instructor at the Herbert Berghof Studio in New York City.
In 1984, Ms. Gallagher starred in the title role of Tallulah, a musical biography of actress Tallulah Bankhead. Her final stage performance came in 2000, where she starred as Gert in the York Theatre Company revival of 70, Girls, 70. Her final television appearance came in 2009, when she appeared as an expert on American Masters to discuss the work of Jerome Robbins.
In all, Ms. Gallagher graced Broadway’s stages 21 times. Her additional Broadway credits include Touch and Go, Make a Wish, Portofino, Cry for Us All, Much Ado About Nothing, The American Dance Machine, and Sugar Babies.
Ms. Gallagher’s influence will live on throughout the Herbert Berghof Studio, and through the countless students she mentored throughout her final decades.
