Carole Shelley

Carole Shelley (born 16 August 1939) is an  English  actress. Among her many stage roles are the character of  Madame Morrible in the original  Broadway cast of the musical  Wicked. She won the  Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in  The Elephant Man in 1979. ==Life and career ==

Shelley was born in London, England, the daughter of Deborah (née Bloomstein), a singer, and Curtis Shelley, a composer.[1] [2]  On stage, Shelley made her Broadway debut as Gwendolyn Pigeon in the original 1965 production of The Odd Couple (starring Art Carney and Walter Matthau).[1]  She reprised the role for the 1968 film version (starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau),[3]  and for (the first part of) the first season of the subsequent television series (starring Tony Randall and Jack Klugman).[4]  She and Monica Evans, her co-star as her sister Cecily Pigeon, were the only two performers to be in all three of The Odd Couple versions: stage, then movie, then first TV adaptation—and in the same roles.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">During the 1970s and 1980s she appeared in several plays, including as Rosalind in As You Like It at the 1972 Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[5]  She received her first Tony Awardnomination in 1975 for her performance as "Jane" in Absurd Person Singular.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-6" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[6]  Shelley won the 1979 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her role as Mrs. Kendal in The Elephant Man,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-times1_4-1" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[4]  and was nominated for the Tony Award as Featured Actress in a Play in 1987 for her performance in Stepping Out as "Maxine."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-7" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[7]  In 1982 she won an Obie Award for her performanceTwelve Dreams.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-8" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[8]  Shelley also began appearing in musicals in the late 1990s, with the revivals of Show Boat as Parthy<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-9" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[9]  and Cabaret as Fraulein Schneider in 1999.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-10" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[10]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">In 2003, Shelley created the role of Madame Morrible in the original Broadway cast of the musical Wicked,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-11" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[11]  a role which she later reprised in the show's national touring company in 2005<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-12" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[12]  and in 2006 in the Chicago production.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-13" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[13]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">Shelley played the role of Grandma in the Broadway production of Billy Elliot at the Imperial Theatre, beginning performances in October 2008.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-14" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[14]  She was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical in 2009.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-15" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[15] ===Film and television<span class="mw-editsection mw-editsection-expanded" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;direction:ltr;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left:-0.25em;margin-right:0.25em;color:rgb(85,85,85);"> ===

<p style="line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">In 1968, Shelley starred as Gwendolyn Pigeon in the film The Odd Couple. Since then she has had numerous roles in film and television. She was featured as "Aunt Clara" alongside Nicole Kidman and former Wicked co-star Kristin Chenoweth in the 2005 film Bewitched.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-16" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[16]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">She lent her voice to several roles in Disney films; notably, Amelia Gabble (the Goose) in The Aristocats (1970),<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-17" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[17]  Lady Kluck, Maid Marian's sidekick and lady-in-waiting, in Robin Hood (1973),<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-18" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[18]  and Lachesis the Fate inHercules.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-19" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[19]  Shelley's "sister" co-star in all three versions of "The Odd Couple", Monica Evans (as Cecily Pigeon), also played her "goose" sister in The Aristocats, Abigail Gabble, clearly as a take-off and a nod to their Pigeon Sisters roles.