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(JTA) \u2014 Actress Carol Channing, who originated the starring role in \u201cHello Dolly!\u201d on Broadway and won a Tony Award for her portrayal of the boisterous widow, has died. She was 97.
\nChanning was the daughter of a Jewish mother and a Christian father and identified as \u201cpart Jewish.\u201d At 16, she learned that her father was multi-racial, with an African-American mother and a German father.<\/p>\n
She wrote in her memoir of her five-year marriage to her first husband, Theodore Naidish, that she learned to speak fluent Yiddish from his grandfather, Sam Cohen, who lived in Brooklyn\u2019s Brighton Beach.<\/p>\n
The Seattle native first became a star playing flapper Lorelei Lee in the 1949 production of \u201cGentlemen Prefer Blondes,\u201d where she sang the iconic \u201cDiamonds Are a Girl\u2019s Best Friend.\u201d
\nChanning played Dolly Levi in \u201cHello Dolly!\u201d winning the Tony in 1964. She played the role for the last time in a 1995 revival. Barbra Streisand was Dolly in the 1969 film version and Bette Midler also won a Tony for her portrayal in the 2017 Broadway revival.<\/p>\n
Channing was recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 1995 and was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981. She made guest appearances on many television shows including \u201cSesame Street,\u201d where she performed a parody of \u201cHello Dolly\u201d called \u201cHello Sammy,\u201d a love song to the Jim Henson character Sammy the Snake.<\/p>\n
She died Tuesday of natural causes just days before her 98th birthday. Channing was married four times and has one son.<\/p>\n