Phyllis Newman, the Tony Award-winning Broadway star who began her acting career as a young child and, driven by her own later struggles with breast cancer, raised millions of dollars to help women in entertainment deal with serious health problems, died Sunday at her home in Manhattan. She was 86.
Newman's career would come to include acting, writing and directing roles in movies, TV and on Broadway. Her work drew many admirers, including talk show host Johnny Carson, who invited her to be the first woman to guest host "The Tonight Show."
She got her start on Broadway as Judy Holliday's understudy in "Bells Are Ringing." In 1960, she married lyricist and playwright Adolph Green, who died in 2002. She won a Tony in 1962 for her supporting role in the musical "Subways Are for Sleeping," which featured a book and lyrics written by her husband and his regular collaborator, Betty Comden. Newman performed the entire musical in a bath towel. And in winning the Tony, she bested Barbra Streisand in her breakthrough role.
Later, she focused on fundraising and founded the Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative of the Actor's Fund in 1996.
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