Julie Wilson, Tony Nominee and Cabaret Legend, Dead at 90

Julie Wilson, a Tony-nominated musical theater performer known for her celebrated career on the cabaret stage, died on Sunday, April 5, reports Deadline. Her death was confirmed by fellow lounge performer Ann Hampton Callaway, a longtime friend and protégé. Wilson was 90 years old; no official cause of death was detailed in the announcement.

Wilson was born on October 21, 1924 in Omaha, Nebraska to Emily and Russell Wilson. Though she enrolled as a drama and music student at Omaha University, she dropped out after being cast in the touring musical revue Earl Carroll’s Vanities. When the tour made it to New York, she settled down there and began her prolific cabaret career—first with gigs at the Latin Quarter and the Copacabana.

Her success as a nightclub singer would bring her to such prestigious venus as the Persian Room at the Plaza Hotel, Michael’s Pub, the Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel and the Carlyle. Her sets included the songs of Irving Berlin, Stephen Sondheim, Cy Coleman, Cole Porter and more.

Though Wilson is remembered for club engagements, she also boasted an extensive musical theater resume. After her Broadway debut as a replacement in Three to Make Ready, Wilson moved to London, where she starred in West End productions of Kiss Me, Kate, South Pacific and Bells Are Ringing.

Wilson returned to New York and went on to appear in Kismet, The Pajama Game, The Girl in the Freudian Slip, Jimmy and Park. She last appeared on the Great White Way in Legs Diamond; her performance as Flo earned her a Tony nomination.

In addition to Broadway and the West End, Wilson took her musical theater career on the road, appearing in national tours of Sondheim’s Follies, Company and A Little Night Music, as well as Show Boat, Panama Hattie and Silk Stockings. Her screen credits include This Could Be the Night, The Secret Storm and The Ed Sullivan Show

Wilson and her second husband, Michael McAloney, had two sons: Holt (who now goes by Holt McCallany) and Michael Jr., who died in 1989. McCallany would occasionally join Wilson to perform duets with his mother in her later acts. Wilson and McAloney split prior to his death in 2000.