Bernadette Peters

Of these, she is the only one who has not played Norma Desmond in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical version of Sunset Boulevard. In 2003, she took on the major role of playing Julie McNamara in the controversial television drama Nip/Tuck based on the lives of plastic surgeons. She is frequently named one of the four greatest living musical divas alongside Betty Buckley, Patti LuPone and Elaine Paige. Richardson expressed sympathy with Marie-Antoinette's undeserved fate, something which she tried to convey in the film. However, it was a critical failure: "an endless illustrated Harlequin paperback of mawkish backstory and corset-popping purple prose", according to Jessica Winter in the Village Voice, though Richardson's performance was listed among the "incidental pleasures" of the film by Roger Ebert and described as a "sly, commanding performance that reflects a marvelous understanding of this notorious character" by Salon.com. However, she was nominated several times: 1975 for Mack and Mabel, 1984 for Sunday in the Park with George, 1993 for The Goodbye Girl, and 2003 for Gypsy, as well as 1972 as Best Featured Actress in a Musical for On the Town. This was a lavish costume drama based on a scandal in the final days of the French monarchy, when Marie-Antoinette's reputation was trashed by a confidence trickster, who absconded with a lavish diamond necklace which she had purchased using the Queen's name but without her knowledge. She has won a Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical twice: 1985 for Song and Dance and 1999 for Annie Get Your Gun. Thus, she secured the role of that queen in the 2001 film The Affair of the Necklace.

In theatre, she has come to be associated with Stephen Sondheim's music, appearing in his Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, and, in 2003, returning to Gypsy as "Mama Rose". Later that year she was modelling on a necklace, when director Charles Shyer noticed her resemblance to doomed 18th-century royal Marie Antoinette. In films she is remembered mainly for the movies she made with Steve Martin. Two years later she played opposite Mel Gibson in the successful film, The Patriot loosely based on the American Revolution. She first attracted critical notice in the Off-Broadway spoof of 1930s musicals, Dames at Sea. In 1998 in the popular television drama The Echo she played sultry Amanda Powell. In her teen years she appeared in The Most Happy Fella (1959), was an understudy for "Dainty June" in the touring company of Gypsy (1961), and was in The Penny Friend (1966) and The Girl In The Freudian Slip (1967). In 1996 she played the fashion designer Anita in the popular Disney film 101 Dalmatians opposite Glenn Close as Cruella deVil.

She took tap lessons, and at the age of nine got her Equity Card (under the name of Bernadette Peters, to avoid ethnic stereotyping). She later appeared as a fictional Finnish princess, Anna, in the 1991 comedy King Ralph. Two years later, she appeared as Lady Chatterley in a televison drama of the same title. She later appeared on Name That Tune and The Horn And Hardart Children's Hour. After an early leading role in Peter Greenaway's cult success Drowning by Numbers, her first major role in front of a mass audience was as Joanna Farley in a 1989 television episode of Poirot, the Agatha Christie-based detective series. Her mother started her off in show business by putting her on the television show Juvenile Jury at the age of three and a half years. She is the daughter of screen legend Vanessa Redgrave and director Tony Richardson, the granddaughter of Sir Michael Redgrave, sister of Natasha Richardson and niece of Lynn Redgrave. Joely Richardson appeared as an extra at the age of three in the 1968 version of The Charge of the Light Brigade directed by her father. Her outstanding characteristics are her flawless complexion, bee-stung lips, kewpie-doll voice, and gift for light comedy. Joely Richardson (born 9 January 1965) is a British actress, who was born into a theatrical family.

Bernadette Peters is the stage name of Bernadette Lazarra (born February 28, 1948 in Ozone Park, Queens, New York), an actress and singer. Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella - 1997. Into the Woods - 1991. Sunday in the Park with George - 1986.

Slaves of New York - 1989. Annie - 1982. Heartbeeps - 1981. Pennies from Heaven - 1981 (Golden Globe Award, Best Actress).

The Jerk - 1979. Silent Movie - 1976. Gypsy - 2003. Annie Get Your Gun - 1999 (Tony Award, Best Leading Actress in a Musical).

The Goodbye Girl - 1993. Into the Woods - 1987. Song and Dance - 1985 (Tony Award, Best Leading Actress in a Musical). Sunday in the Park with George - 1984.

Mack & Mabel - 1974. On the Town - 1971. La Strada - 1969. George M! - 1968.

Johnny No-Trump - 1967. The Girl in the Freudian Slip -1967. Dames at Sea - 1967.