JUDY HOLLIDAY AKA "BILLIE DAWN"
(June 21, 1921 - June 7, 1965)

No matter how many revivals of Born Yesterday are performed in stages throughout the country, there was truly only one Billie.  And she was played by Judy Holliday on Broadway in 1946 and in the film version.

A native of Sunnyside, Queens, NY, she graduated from Julia Richman High School and her first job was as an assistant switchboard operator (a skill she might have used as Ella in the musical comedy Bells Are Ringing) at the Mercury Theatre run by Orson Welles and
John Houseman.

In 1938 she joined Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Alvin Hammer and John Frank in a night-club act called "The Revuers."  After engagements at various New York night clubs including the Village Vanguard, Blue Angel, Rainbow Room and the Trocadero in Hollywood, the group disbanded in early 1944.

Her Broadway debut occurred on March 20, 1945 in Kiss Them For Me at the Belasco Theatre and earned her a Clarence Derwent Award.  

BILLIE DAWN

Author Garson Kanin wrote Born Yesterday for Jean Arthur. When Jean who played the role out of town left for personal reasons, he selected Judy who was 20 years younger than Ms. Arthur.   When Columbia bought the rights to the film, studio boss Harry Cohn would not consider casting a Hollywood unknown.  So director
George Cukor, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn conspired to promote her by offering her a key part in Adam's Rib (1949).   She got rave reviews and Cohn offered her the chance to repeat her role in the film.  She had to do a screen test first!!!    Cohn wanted to be sure she was the best choice.  She won the Oscar defeating Gloria Swanson (Sunset Boulevard), Eleanor Parker (Caged), Bette Davis and Anne Baxter (All About Eve).        
                        She costarred with then-newcomer Jack Lemmon in his first two feature films:
 It Should Happen to You and Phffft! (1954).  George Cukor said Holliday had, "In common with the great comedians...that depth of emotion, that unexpectedly touching emotion, that thing which would unexpectedly touch your heart."

She returned to Broadway in 1956 starring in the musical Bells Are Ringing with book and lyrics by her Revuers pals, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and directed by Jerome Robbins.  She won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical and in 1960 starred in the film version.
Brooks Atkinson wrote:  "Nothing has happened to the shrill little moll whom the town loved in Born Yesterday. The squeaky voice, the embarrassed giggle, the brassy naivete, the dimples, the teeter-totter walk fortunately remain unimpaired...Miss Holliday now adds a trunk full of song and dance routines...Without losing any of that doll-like personality, she is now singing Jule Styne and dancing numbers choreographed by Jerome Robbins and
Bob Fosse. She has gusto enough to triumph in every kind of music hall antic."

Before her untimely death in 1965, she started out of town tryouts on the play Laurette based on the life of Laurette Taylor. The show was directed by Jose Quintero with background music by Elmer Bernstein and produced by Alan Pakula.   She became ill and had to leave the show which closed in Philadelphia.  Her last role was in the stage musical Hot Spot (1963) , co-starring newcomers
Joseph Campanella and Mary Louise Wilson.