She moved to Los Angeles with her parents and her sister when she was 15.
She attended the University of California, Los Angeles, for a year in the early 1950s and, after acting in plays in the Los Angeles area in the early and mid-1950s, appeared in her first movie role, a small part in Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments” (1956).
After some more screen work and roles in Off and Off Off Broadway plays, Ms. Merlin made her Broadway debut in 1961 in Jean Anouilh’s “Becket,” as Gwendolen, the mistress of Thomas Becket, one of Britain’s most powerful figures in the 12th century, who was played by Laurence Olivier.
Although she lacked a strong singing voice, she was cast as Tzeitel, the oldest daughter of Tevye the milkman, the show’s principal character.
The syndicated columnist Leonard Lyons wrote that when Ms. Merlin was pregnant in 1965 with her daughter Rachel, Zero Mostel, who played Tevye, told the stage manager: “Joanna’s baby just kicked.
Persons:
Cecil B, “, Merlin, Jean Anouilh’s “ Becket, ”, Thomas Becket, Laurence Olivier, Sigmund Freud’s, Henry Denker’s “, Bertolt Brecht’s, Courage, Jerome Robbins, Robbins, Leonard Lyons, Rachel, Zero Mostel, Tevye, Bette Midler, Prince
Organizations:
University of California, Cecil, Broadway
Locations:
Los Angeles
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