Carol Channing was synonymous with Dolly Levi, the hilarious matchmaking widow in Michael Stewart and Jerry Herman’s musical Hello, Dolly! She created the part in the original New York production, sang it in the West End revival of 1979 and was still playing Dolly well into her seventies. Nearly 6ft tall, with huge dark eyes and a letterbox mouth topped off with outrageous blond wigs, Channing had a rasping voice as deep as Ralph Richardson’s. Her looks could have made her the younger sister of Danny La Rue, the actor who in 1984 played Mrs Levi in the West End. When Hello, Dolly!

Source: The Times January 16, 2019 00:00 UTC