Marian Mercer

Marian Mercer and musical comedy have been made for each other ever since she starred in a high school production of Annie Get Your Gun. After graduating from the University of Michigan, she made her professional debut in 1957. A few seasons of summer stock later, she was in New York, working a chorus member, an understudy and a principal in such tuneful productions as Fiorello and Little Mary Sunshine. She was given plenty of room to display her singing and comic versatility in the Broadway revue New Faces of 1962, then spent several years as an ensemble player on such TV variety shows as The Dean Martin Show, The Andy Williams Show and The Dom DeLuise Show. In 1968, she won a Tony award for her portrayal of good-time girl Maggie McDonnell in Promises, Promises; the following year she made her first film appearance in John and Mary. Mercer's 1970s assignments included a season's worth of sketches on the syndicated TVer The Wacky World of Jonathan Winters; the role of neighbor Kay Fox in The Sandy Duncan Show (1972); the part of Myra Bradley in the Shirley Booth sitcom A Touch of Grace (1973); and recurring appearances as politician's wife Wanda Rittenhouse in Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976) and its spin-off Forever Fernwood (1977). She remained solidly booked throughout the 1980s, as manager Nancy Beebe in TV's Making a Living (1980), as co-op landlady Mrs. Griffin in the 1983 sitcom Foot in the Door and in innumerable stage and cabaret appearances. After spending part of 1991 in the supporting role of Martha in the Norman Lear series Sunday Dinner, Marian Mercer was at last afforded top billing as Grace Bradley in the 1993 comedy weekly Home Free.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide