Carole D’Andrea, who portrayed the Jet girl Velma in the original 1957 Broadway production of West Side Story and then in the classic 1961 film, has died. She was 87.
D’Andrea died March 11 of heart failure at her home in Santa Monica, her daughter Andrea Doven told The Hollywood Reporter.
She was married to Tony winner and Mad Men star Robert Morse from 1961 until their 1981 divorce.
D’Andrea was one of only six actors from the original Broadway cast of West Side Story to appear in the United Artists feature; the others were Tony Mordente, Tommy Abbott, William Bramley, Jay Norman and David Winters.
Born on Aug. 28, 1937, in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Carole Ann D’Andrea graduated from Altoona Area High School, where she was a majorette. When she was about 16, she turned down a scholarship to Penn State University and came to New York to pursue acting after her parents died in a car crash.
She was cast as Velma, a rich girl who falls for Riff (Michael Callin), in West Side Story, which premiered in September 1957 at the Winter Garden Theatre with direction and choreography from Jerome Robbins and a book by Arthur Laurents. She also understudied the role of Anybodys.
In 1959, D’Andrea was initially cast as June in Robbins and Laurents’ Broadway musical Gypsy, but at the last moment, Lane Bradbury took over the role instead, as mentioned in Greg Lawrence’s book Dance With Demons: The Life of Jerome Robbins published in 2001.
However, the actress, singer and dancer was a favorite of the demanding Robbins, and she made it back as Velma in the West Side Story film, co-directed and choreographed by Robbins. Here, Velma is the girlfriend of Ice (Tucker Smith), a character created for the movie.
D’Andrea married Morse and quit acting to raise her daughters, Andrea, Robin and Hilary. (Robin and Hilary have also acted on Broadway, and Robin is a teacher at the Manhattan School of Music.)
She taught acting for many years, first at Carnegie Hall in New York and then, starting in the early 1990s, in Hollywood. She took her classes online during the COVID pandemic and was still teaching a week before her death.
Survivors also include her grandchildren, Lucia, Francis, Jagger, Marlon and Lance.
Her daughters observed that D’Andrea passed away on the 44th anniversary of her sobriety in Alcoholics Anonymous, a day she referred to as “the turning point in my life.
Read More
- Cookie Run Kingdom Town Square Vault password
- Kingdom Come Deliverance 2: Lion’s Crest DLC Quest Guide
- NEAR Protocol Launches New Governance Proposal
- Cookie Run Kingdom: Shadow Milk Cookie Toppings and Beascuits guide
- Maiden Academy tier list
- Pi Network’s Grand Migration: 10 Million and Counting!
- Bill Maher Flattens Left’s Land Acknowledgment Farce
- Meet the 73-Year-Old Mastermind of a $2.4M Crypto Caper! 💸
- Unleashing the Digital Rupee: The Wallet You Didn’t Know You Needed! 🤑💰
- 5 Romantic Horror Movies to Watch This Valentine’s Day
2025-03-18 20:27