From Wikipedia
Vivienne Sonia Segal (April 19, 1897 - December 29, 1992)
was an American actress and singer.
Segal was born on April 19, 1897 in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania.
She is best remembered for creating the role of Vera Simpson
in Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's Pal Joey and introduced the song "Bewitched,
Bothered and Bewildered". Pal Joey opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre
December 25, 1940, with a cast that included Gene Kelly and June Havoc. She
also starred as Morgan LeFay in the Rodgers and Hart revival of A Connecticut
Yankee in 1942. One of Lorenz Hart's last songs, "To Keep My Love
Alive", was written specifically for her in this show.
Since the 1940 production went unrecorded, a studio cast was
assembled in 1950 to record the musical. In 2003, this recording was reissued
by Columbia Broadway Masterworks in a release featuring such Rodgers and Hart
tunes as “I Could Write a Book”, “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered”, “Zip”,
and “Take Him,” as well as two bonus tracks: Lang singing “I Could Write a
Book” (from the CBS TV show Shower of Stars) and Segal—interviewed by Mike
Wallace on the CBS Radio show Stage Struck—recalled Hart's promise to write her
a show and then sings “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered”. She was also a
performer on the CBS Radio program Accordiana in 1934. She retired from acting
in 1966 following a guest appearance on Perry Mason as Pauline Thorsen in
"The Case of the Tsarina's Tiara."
Segal's first marriage to actor Robert Ames ended in
divorce. She then married television executive Hubbell Robinson.
She died in Beverly Hills, California of heart failure on
December 29, 1992, aged 95. She was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial
Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.
