Tony Winner Liliane Montevecchi, Known for Nine and Grand Hotel, Dies at 85

Tony winner Liliane Montevecchi died of colon cancer on June 29, according to The New York Times. The French-born stage and screen star was 85.

Montevecchi made a splash on Broadway in Nine in 1982. She played the role of producer Liliane La Fleur in Arthur Kopit and Maury Yeston’s Tony-winning musical based on Federico Fellini’s 8½, directed and choreographed by Tommy Tune. Her performance won her the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical; she triumphed over her Nine co-stars Karen Akers and Anita Morris in the same category. Montevecchi was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1990 for playing fading ballerina Elizaveta Grushinskaya in the Tune-helmed Grand Hotel. She had previously made her Broadway debut as a replacement in the 1958 Broadway revue La Plume de Ma Tante and appeared in the 1964 revue Folies Bergère.

The performer, who was born in Paris on October 13, 1932, began her career as a ballet dancer and became the prima ballerina in in Roland Petit's dance company by the age of 18. She made her way to Hollywood in the 1950s and became a contract player for MGM, appearing in a wide range of films, including The Glass Slipper, Daddy Long Legs, Meet Me in Las Vegas, The Living Idol and more. She returned to her dancing roots in the 1960s, when she joined the Folies Bergère in Las Vegas. She spent the next decade working with the company before her Broadway achievements. Her later credits include many television and film appearances as well as a robust career on the cabaret scene.