Bernadette Peters is the stage name of Bernadette Lazarra (born February 28, 1948 in Ozone Park, Queens, New York), an actress and singer. Her outstanding characteristics are her flawless complexion, bee-stung lips, kewpie-doll voice, and gift for light comedy.

Her mother started her off in show business by putting her on the television show Juvenile Jury at the age of three and a half years. She later appeared on Name That Tune and The Horn And Hardart Children's Hour. She took tap lessons, and at the age of nine got her Equity Card (under the name of Bernadette Peters, to avoid ethnic stereotyping). In her teen years she appeared in The Most Happy Fella (1959), was an understudy for "Dainty June" in the touring company of Gypsy (1961), and was in The Penny Friend (1966) and The Girl In The Freudian Slip (1967).

She first attracted critical notice in the Off-Broadway spoof of 1930s musicals, Dames at Sea.

In films she is remembered mainly for the movies she made with Steve Martin. In theatre, she has come to be associated with Stephen Sondheim's music, appearing in his Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, and, in 2003, returning to Gypsy as "Mama Rose".

She has won a Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical twice: 1985 for Song and Dance and 1999 for Annie Get Your Gun. However, she was nominated several times: 1975 for Mack and Mabel, 1984 for Sunday in the Park with George, 1993 for The Goodbye Girl, and 2003 for Gypsy, as well as 1972 as Best Featured Actress in a Musical for On the Town.

She is frequently named one of the four greatest living musical divas alongside Betty Buckley, Patti LuPone and Elaine Paige. Of these, she is the only one who has not played Norma Desmond in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical version of Sunset Boulevard.

Off-Broadway Appearances

• Dames at Sea (1967)

Broadway Appearances

• The Most Happy Fella (1959)
• The Girl in the Freudian Slip (1967)
• Johnny No-Trump (1967)
• George M! (1968)
• La Strada (1969)
• On the Town (1971) (revival)
• Mack & Mabel (1974)
• Sunday in the Park with George (1984)
• Song and Dance (1985)
• Into the Woods (1987)
• The Goodbye Girl (1993)
• Sunday in the Park with George (1994) (revival)
• Into the Woods (1997) (revival)
• Annie Get Your Gun (1999) (revival)
• Gypsy (2003) (revival)

Filmography

• Ace Eli and Rodger of the Skies (1973)
• The Longest Yard (1974)
• Silent Movie (1976)
• W.C. Fields and Me (1976)
• Vigilante Force (1976)
• The Jerk (1979)
• Tulips (1981)
• Pennies from Heaven (1981)
• Heartbeeps (1981)
• Annie (1982)
• Slaves of New York (1989)
• Pink Cadillac (1989)
• Alice (1990)
• Impromptu (1991)
• Anastasia (1997) (voice)
• Snow Days (1999)
• The Making and Meaning of 'We Are Family' (2002) (documentary)
• It Runs in the Family (2003)

Television Appearances

• Sunday in the Park with George - 1986
• Into the Woods - 1991
• Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella - 1997

External links and references

• Her Stage Mother, Herself, The New York Times, April 27, 2003 - profile by Jesse Green on Peters, her mother, and Gypsy
• Bernadette Peters - Broadway's Best, A fan website to keep you up to date on Bernadette Peters.
• Bernadette Peters - The official website, Bio, Photo Gallery, Profile, Calendar, Articles