Judy Holliday Is Dead

June 7, 1965 - Judy Holliday, who won an Oscar and a niche in theatrical history for her performance as the junk dealer’s squeaky-voiced girlfriend in “Born Yesterday,” died today of cancer. She was 41.

The blonde actress had been ill for several years and underwent surgery for cancer in 1961. She entered New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital May 26.

Arnold Krakower, her attorney, who announced the death, said: “To the very end, she put up a gallant fight to live. In her passing, the world has lost a great, beautiful talent, and those who knew her have lost an irreplaceable friend.”

“Born Yesterday” was her first major role, and she got it in the classical manner. Jean Arthur, picked for the part, became sick three days before the show opened in Philadelphia. Miss Holliday learned the part in three days and rode with it to stardom on Broadway and in Hollywood.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded her the Oscar in 1951 as top actress.

She was the daughter of Abraham and Helen Tuvim. “Holliday” is a free translation of the Hebrew word Tuvium. Her father was a fundraiser.

At four, Judy was taking ballet lessons, and upon graduation from high school, she studied at Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater.

Fame came slowly. She played farces on the Eastern Seaboard’s borscht circuit and then more of the same at the Village Vanguard.

Eventually, she won small parts in two motion pictures — “Winged Victory” and “Something for the Boys.”

On Broadway, she had appeared in “Kiss Them for Me” before doing “Born Yesterday.”During the run of her biggest hit, she was married to musician David Oppenheim in 1948. In 1957, they obtained a Mexican divorce after one child, Jonathan.

At the time of her divorce, she was playing in “Bells Are Ringing,” another success on both Broadway and in the movies.

In 1952, she appeared before the Senate Internal Security subcommittee, denying she was a Communist or ever had been one.

She had lent her name and made contributions to leftist causes. She said then: “I have awakened to a realization that I have been irresponsible and slightly — more than slightly — stupid. When I was solicited, I always said: ‘Oh, isn’t that too bad. Sure, use my name.’”

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