Oh, there's no "dirt" on Tammy Grimes, per se, only information. it's just wordplay and a shameless headline. Grimes (1934-2016) was an actress/performer whose legend was primarily in the theatre, with the last of her most major credits having occurred in the 1980s.
I lead with this truth by way of excuse for the fact that when I first encountered her name, as a guest of honor at one of Theater for the New City's Love 'n' Courage benefits around 2007 it didn't register. I had a vague idea she might be a black performer, perhaps mixing her up with Tammy Terrell and Teresa Graves, and maybe having heard the (true) anecdote that she had been attacked by racists in the '60s for associating with black performers like Sammy Davis, Jr. Even when I learned who she was, like many, I then erroneously believed she was British, on account of her being married to Christopher Plummer (who wasn't actually English, either, but Canadian), and the mother of Amanda Plummer, but also because she TALKED with that accent, and seemed so similar to Elsa Lanchester and Glynis Johns, and was indeed a great favorite of Noel Coward's.
Yet Grimes was indeed major, and came a whisker away from being a personality whose name every American would automatically know. She was one of those actresses who created Broadway roles only to be replaced by others in the movie versions. She won a Tony for playing the lead in The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1960) only to be replaced by Debbie Reynolds in the film; and was in the original cast of Neil Simon's California Suite (1976), but was replaced by Maggie Smith, who went on to win an Oscar for her performance.
Perhaps the most compelling could-have-been was that she was actually cast as the lead role of Samantha on the sit-com Bewitched, but she decided to pass in order to take what she considered a more stage role. This conjures (ha! I said "conjures") the beguiling and otherwise unthinkable idea that there might have actually been someone better cast as Samantha than Elizabeth Montgomery. Don't throw bricks through my window just yet! It's just a talking point. Montgomery works because, bewitching as she is, she's a little against type. She's a "girl next door". Grimes would have been more like Kim Novak in Bell, Book and Candle -- witchier. She was even from Lynn, Massachusetts, just five miles from Salem! Anyway, she chose instead an equally spooky stage vehicle, a lead in High Spirits (1964), the Broadway musical version of Blithe Spirit. Surely she was eager to continue her relationship with Coward. She had first come to fame in his 1959 play Look After Lulu. She was to win her second Tony for her performance in the 1969 revival of Private Lives, so sticking with Coward was not exactly foolish. And anyway, she did end up getting her own sitcom The Tammy Grimes Show in 1966, but it didn't last very long.
Another important association for Grimes was Rankin-Bass. She provided the voice of Albert, the lead, in their 1974 animated special based on 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, and was also in the cast of The Last Unicorn (1982). Another family classic she was in was the 1973 TV adaptation of The Borrowers, with Eddie Albert.
Trained at the Neighborhood Playhouse, Grimes understudied for Kim Stanley in the original 1955 Broadway production of Bus Stop. From here she went into the ensemble of The Little Revue (1956) with Joel Grey, Charlotte Rae, and Larry Storch. A dozen other Broadway roles followed. In addition to those already mentioned, a notable one was the original 1980 production of 42nd Street. A 1989 revival of Orpheus Descending was her last. She was also in a 1960 TV production of Archy and Mehitabel, as Mehitabel of course. Carol Channing took the role over in the later animated film version. Unseated again!
Grimes recorded several record albums, and in her heyday was on all the TV variety shows: The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show with Jack Paar, Max Liebman Spectaculars, The Arthur Murray Party, The Andy Williams Show, The Dean Martin Show, The Danny Kaye Show, The Hollywood Palace, George Jessel's Here Come the Stars...
Grimes was also in plenty of well-known movies, quite a hodge-podge, usually in supporting roles. These include Frank Perry's Play It As it Lays (1972) with Tuesday Weld, The Horror at 37,000 Feet (1973), The Runner Stumbles (1979, Stanley Kramer's last film), Nancy Walker's 1980 Can't Stop the Music starring The Village People, Larry Cohen's The Stuff (1985), Danny Huston's Mr. North (1988), and Merchant-Ivory's 1989 adaptation of Tama Janowitz's Slaves of New York. One of her last was the critically acclaimed indie High Art (1998) with Ally Sheedy and Radha Mitchell.
In the midst of our tv binging during the Covid lockdown I caught her in a 1979 Love Boat episode opposite Roddy McDowell!
After her 1960 divorce from Plummer, Grimes was married to actor Jeremy Slate (1966-67) and composer Richard Bell (1971-2005, his death, not the same one who played with Janis Joplin and The Band).
While I have your attention? I'm reminded of the fact that this year's Love 'n' Courage benefit is coming up, February 12! And this year's guest of honor is the one and only Penny Arcade! Get your tickets here.
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