Shirley Booth - TV's "Hazel"

 

"Burt Lancaster advised me against doing 'Hazel.'  'Don't do television,' he warned.  'It'll ruin you!'  Burt is a doll and a heck of an actor, but I'm glad I didn't follow his advice.  Everybody under 40 knows me better from 'Hazel,' not from my movies."

Shirley Booth was born Marjory Ford in Brooklyn, New York on August 30, 1898.  Admittedly, she's an actress that I know very little about, but she has a pretty cool grave.  She grew up in Brooklyn and then later Philadelphia, where she learned to appreciate the theatre.

She made her Broadway debut when she was just 17, playing Lola Delaney in the drama Come Back, Little Sheba, a role she'd later reprise on the silver screen.  She made her Broadway debut just a few years later, starring opposite Humphrey Bogart in the three-act play Hell's Bells.

After an early Hollywood marriage that ended in divorce, Booth married William H. Baker, Jr., a regular joe serving his country during World War 2.  This marriage was short-lived too however, as Baker died of heart disease in 1951.  Booth never remarried.

Shirley Booth is best remembered for her role as the wisecracking housekeeper Hazel on the sit-com of the same name.  It premiered on NBC in 1961 and ran for four seasons before being canceled.  CBS picked it up for an additional season, before Booth finally called it quits in 1966.  Along the way, she won two Emmy awards for the role, which she'd continue to play in commercials after the series was canceled (see Trivia below).

Booth retired from acting in 1974.  For her final acting role, she provided the voice of Mrs. Claus in the animated special The Year Without a Santa Claus. 

By 1976, her health was in decline.  Over the next decade, she'd break her hip and suffer a stroke, the latter of which caused mobility issues and took her sight.  She ultimately died on October 16, 1992, at the age of 94.  She was laid to rest in the Baker family plot in Mount Hebron Cemetery in Montclair, New Jersey. 

Rest in peace.

Trivia

• If you want to learn more about Shirley Booth, take a voyage to Amazon.  Its all in books.
  
  
• In 1979, Booth was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in New York City.  She was unable to attend the ceremony however, and the award was accepted on her behalf by actress Celeste Holm.  Additionally, she is one of 15 actresses to have won the Triple Crown of Acting - an Oscar, a Tony, and an Emmy Award.
  
  
• As her Hazel character, Booth did a series of commercials for the Ford Motor Company.  Here's one.  Here's another.  Here's one more.
  
  
• Ever watch Seinfeld?  George Costanza once referenced Shirley Booth and Hazel in this classic clip.
  
  
• Mount Hebron is also the final resting place of several other notable figures, including actress Olympia Dukakis, paint tycoon Benjamin Moore, and Allen Balcom DuMont, the man who gave the world television.