Broadway star Sondra Lee, 97, died on Feb. 23. From 1947 through 1970, Lee appeared in such shows as High Button Shoes, Peter Pan (as Tiger Lily to Mary Martin’s Peter), Hotel Paradiso, Jerome Robbins’ Ballet USA (she worked often with Robbins), Sunday in New York, and Hello, Dolly! (as Minnie Fay, to a raft of Dollies). The tiny (under 5 feet) blonde singer and dancer also appeared on TV in Peter Pan and Hansel and Gretel, and danced on Ed Sullivan’s show and in La Dolce Vita (she is the ballerina at that end-of-movie party scene) Lee also worked as acting coach to such performers as Jane Fonda, Sally Field, Marlon Brando, Dustin Hoffman, John Malkovich, and Matt Dillon—obviously with varying degrees of success. She started her career in Catskills revues, and danced with Roland Petit’s La Revue des Ballets de Paris. Her 2009 memoirs—which I must now find!—were titled I’ve Slept With Everybody: A Memoir. I would love to favor you with pertinent quotes, but all interviews are on YouTube or podcasts, and as Jane Austen used to say, "fuck that shit."
