Biography for
Carol Bruce More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

15 November 1919, Great Neck, Long Island, New York, USA

Date of Death

9 October 2007, Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)

Birth Name

Shirley Levy

Mini Biography

Daughter of Harry and Beatrice Levy - Graduate of Erasmus High School, Brooklyn, NY. Made her Broadway debut in "Louisiana Purchase" which was especially written for her by Irving Berlin.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous

Spouse

Milton Nathonson

(17 June 1945 - May 1963) (dissolved) 1 daughter

Trivia

The role of Mama Carlson was played by Sylvia Sidney in the pilot only and played by Carol Bruce throughout the run of the series "WKRP in Cincinnati" (1978).

Sang at President Franklin D Roosevelt's Birthday Ball, The White House, Washington, D.C., January 1942

Mother of one daughter, Julie.

Her last musical stage role was as Madame Armfeldt in a 1994 performance of "A Little Night Music" in San Diego.

On July 12, 1951, she was involved in a serious auto accident in Pennsylvania when she collided with a truck. The truck driver died and she was deemed at fault.

The Broadway show "Louisiana Purchase" landed her on the cover of Life Magazine (September 9, 1940).

Made her film debut in the Frank Lloyd seafaring adventure This Woman is Mine (1941). In her second film, Keep 'Em Flying (1941), she sang "I'm Gettin' Sentimental Over You." In her third, Behind the Eight Ball (1942), she introduced a Don Raye-Gene DePaul ballad, "You Don't Know What Love Is," which had been dropped from "Keep 'Em Flying" but later became a jazz standard. After these three pictures for Universal, she didn't appear in another film until 1980.

Some references claim Ms. Bruce earned a Tony nomination for her Broadway work in the musical "Do I Hear a Waltz?" in 1965. Despite her outstanding performance, it was another actress Elizabeth Allen who was given a nomination from the show. Ms. Allen subsequently lost to Liza Minnelli of "Flora, the Red Menace" that year.

Won the revered role of Julie in the acclaimed 1946 revival of "Show Boat" opposite Kenneth Spencer and Jan Clayton (of "Lassie" fame). She went on to name her daughter Julie.

Began her singing career as a Montreal nightclub singer before returning to the states and appearing in "George White's Scandals" in Boston in 1938. The show eventually went to Broadway.