Bebe Neuwirth

Name	Bebe Neuwirth
Image
Caption	Neuwirth in 2023
Birth Name	Beatrice Jane Neuwirth
Birth Date	1958-12-31
Birth Place	Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Education	Juilliard School (BFA)
Occupation	Actress ⋅ singer ⋅ dancer
Years Active	1980–present
Spouse	Paul Dorman (1984 – 1991) Chris Calkins (2009 – now)

Early life

Bebe Neuwirth was born in Newark, New Jersey. Her father, Lee Neuwirth, was a mathematician who taught at Princeton University and also designed an encryption device while working at the Institute for Defense Analyses. Her mother, Sydney Anne Neuwirth, is a painter who also danced as an amateur for the Princeton Regional Ballet Company. She has an older brother, Peter, a mathematician and actuary who graduated from Harvard. She attended Chapin School and Princeton Day School, and Princeton High School. In her youth, Neuwirth rebelled against authority, being placed in custody for smoking marijuana when she was 13.

Neuwirth started taking ballet lessons at the age of five, a year after viewing a production of The Nutcracker with her mother. She desired to be a ballet dancer until her early teens, when she realized how restricted her technique was as well as the standard of ballet education where she lived. Upon viewing the musical Pippin in Manhattan at 13, she changed her future plans from becoming a ballerina to being a Broadway musical dancer. After graduating from Princeton High School in 1976, she attended the Juilliard School for dance and left after only a year, disliking the school for having a "stifling creative environment" and no Broadway-style dance training. Immediately after leaving Juilliard in 1977, she took singing and jazz classes at a New York City-based YWCA, one of them taught by Joan Morton Lucas, who appeared in the film Singin' in the Rain (1952) and the original Broadway production of Kiss Me Kate. She performed with the Princeton Ballet Company in Peter and the Wolf, The Nutcracker, and Coppélia, also appearing in community theater musicals.

Career

Theater work

Film and television

While in Los Angeles waiting to receive a Tony for her appearance in Sweet Charity in 1985, Neuwirth auditioned for the role of Dr. Lilith Sternin in the television series Cheers. At the time, Neuwirth was not interested in doing television work and her character was initially planned to be in only one episode of the series. However, the writers enjoyed writing her dialogue so much that she was written into more episodes of the show, eventually making her one of the series' recurring actors.

Neuwirth's character Lilith eventually married Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer). From the fourth to the ninth season, Neuwirth portrayed Lilith in a regular recurring role, and she appeared on the show as a main star for both seasons ten and eleven. Like Kelsey Grammer when he started on the show as Frasier, she was not immediately given star billing in the opening credits but in the end credits for seasons eight and nine, appearing in the opening credits with her own portrait in seasons ten and eleven. She auditioned for the role with her arm in a sling, following a fall a week earlier. She won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for the role, in 1990 and 1991. The character also made an appearance in the series Wings and in twelve episodes of the Cheers spin-off Frasier, which earned her a 1995 Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series at the 47th Primetime Emmy Awards. She left Cheers in 1993 to go back to her career in dancing, but would make more television appearances in other shows and commercials.

Personal life

In 1984, Neuwirth married Paul Dorman. She met him in 1982 after she performed in Upstairs at O'Neal's, a revue at O'Neal's restaurant in New York, where he was bartending. The two divorced in 1991. In 2009, she married director, producer and writer Chris Calkins at The Players club in Manhattan, in a ceremony officiated by actor Peter Coyote.

In a 2004 article in the newspaper J. The Jewish News of Northern California, Neuwirth was reported as describing herself as Jewisha "plain Jew" with "no training". In a 2011 interview she said that she was an "atheist" who "believed in unseen and unproved things" such as reincarnation.

Neuwirth has supported and worked for several non-profit charity organizations. Following two hip replacement surgeries, and after hearing stories of other dancers facing hip problems, Neuwirth was moved to establish the Dancers' Resource program at The Actors Fund, which caters to financial and physical needs unique to professional dancers. Neuwirth currently serves as vice chair on the board of trustees for The Actors Fund. She has also helped Seeds of Peace.

As an animal lover, she has contributed to the Chatham, New York-based horse rescue group Equine Advocates and the annual pet adoption event Broadway Barks. Neuwirth is particularly fond of cats. In the 1990s, she owned one, Frankie, that she named after architect and writer Frank Lloyd Wright. As of August 2016, she had a black cat, Bobby, a long-haired calico cat, Tallulah, and a mixed Siamese cat, Billie.

In her free time, Neuwirth enjoys making pottery, which she first learned in high school.

Acting credits

Film

Television

Stage

Audiobooks

Awards and nominations

References

• Bebe Neuwirth, TV Guide, July 15, 2015, July 16, 2015, dead
• Bjorklund, Dennis, 2014, Cheers TV Show: A Comprehensive Reference, Praetorian Publishing, February 6, 2019, August 10, 2023, live
• The Ulitimate New Jersey High School Year Book., 1998, The Star Ledger.
• Painter, Jamie, February 21, 2001, TO THE POINTE – Whether dancing, singing, or acting, Bebe Neuwirth applies the same discipline and focus, Backstage, February 5, 2019, February 7, 2019, live
• Jenny Made Her Mind Up: Here Lies Jenny Will Extend One Last Time, to Oct. 3, Jones, Kenneth, August 27, 2004, Playbill, 2016-02-25, March 4, 2016, live
• Cheers Star Bebe Neuwirth's Life Lessons: "Come with an Open Heart, An Open Mind and Be Game for the Ride", Debra, Wallace, November 5, 2019, Parade: Entertainment, Recipes, Health, Life, Holidays, September 3, 2020, September 18, 2020, live
• 2024 Tony Awards: Sarah Paulson, Jeremy Strong, Rachel McAdams and More Nab Nominations — See the Full List, April 30, 2024
• Welkos, Robert W., March 22, 1997, 'Dear Diary': How It Got an Oscar Nod, en-US, Los Angeles Times, 2016-02-25, 0458-3035, July 2, 2015, live
• Academy Awards Database – AMPAS, dead, February 8, 2009, 2016-02-25, awardsdatabase.oscars.org, mdy-all
• Petski, Denise, 2017-10-23, Bebe Neuwirth Exits CBS Drama Series 'Madam Secretary', 2020-11-24, Deadline, en-US, May 1, 2019, live
• Frasier's Bebe Neuwirth Ties the Knot, October 1, 2009, Mary, Green, May 5, 2009, People, September 8, 2015, dead, mdy-all
• Bloom, Nate, Celebrity Jews: Bebe and Lilith, J., San Francisco Jewish Community Publications, June 25, 2004, July 4, 2008, May 27, 2012, live
• Akman, Terri, July 2015, Person to Watch: Bebe Neuwirth, SJ, February 8, 2019, February 9, 2019, live
• Healing the Dancer Seminar Hosted by Bebe Neuwirth, April 18, 2007, Actors Equity, September 29, 2015, July 15, 2014, live
• Neuwirth Returns To Chicago With A New Hip, World Entertainment News Network, ContactMusic.com, January 6, 2007, September 29, 2015, live
• Dulin, Dann, December 2011, Bebe Neuwirth, A&U, February 8, 2019, February 9, 2019, live
• Board of Trustees, 2016-02-11, Actors Fund, en, 2020-04-26, April 17, 2020, live
• Fischler, Brian, August 23, 2016, Bebe Neuwirth Talks About Her Love of Cats and Animal Rescue, Catster, February 8, 2019, February 9, 2019, live
• Bebe Neuwirth (visual voices guide), October 21, 2023, Behind The Voice Actors
• Jumanji: The Next Level Brought Back Star Of Original Movie, Screen Rant, Hood, Cooper, December 25, 2019, December 26, 2019, December 25, 2019, live
• June 21, 2023, Captain Fall: 'Captain Fall' set to premiere on Netflix in July; Check release date here – The Economic Times, June 25, 2023, July 27, 2023, live, The Economic Times
• Anything Goes, 1988-09-19, Florida Virtual Campus, Broward College, 12 March 2024
• Klein, Alvin, Coward Double Bill At Bay Street Theater, 12 March 2024, New York Times, 28 July 1996
• Simonson, Robert, Last Chance: Williamstown Shrew, with Neuwirth and Rees, Ends July 18, 12 March 2024, Playbill, 17 July 1999
• Stasio, Marilyn, Ashley Montana Goes Ashore in the Caicos … Or What Am I Doing Here?, 12 March 2024, Variety, 20 October 2005
• A Small Fire, Philadelphia Theatre Company, October 9, 2019, 12 March 2024
• Forgione, Emma, Bebe Neuwirth Lights 'A Small Fire', 12 March 2024, American Theatre, Theatre Communications Group, 9 October 2019

External links

• Bebe Neuwirth – Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing.org