Carol Channing was known for her easily identifiable voice. She was an actress, singer, dancer and comedian who starred in musicals both on Broadway and film.

Her first job on stage in New York City was in Marc Blitzstein’s No for an Answer, at the Mecca Temple (later New York City Center). She was 19 years old. Channing moved to Broadway for Let’s Face It!, in which she was an understudy for Eve Arden, who was 13 years older than Channing. Much later, in 1966, Arden was hired to play the title role in Hello Dolly! in a road company after Channing left to star in the film Thoroughly Modern Millie. Channing won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago’s theatres in 1966 (Eve Arden won the next year).

Five years later, Channing had a featured role in Lend an Ear (1948), for which she received her Theatre World Award and launched her as a star performer. Channing credited illustrator Al Hirschfeld for helping make her a star when he put her image in his widely published illustrations. She said that his drawing of her as a flapper was what helped her get the lead in her next play, the Jule Styne and Anita Loos musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. From that role, as Lorelei Lee, she gained recognition, with her signature song from the production, “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” among the most widely known.

In January 1950, Time magazine ran a cover story about her becoming a new star on Broadway, followed by cover stories in Life magazine in 1955 and 1964.

Channing was asked if she would perform with George Burns during his shows. She accepted immediately, and Channing worked on and off with Burns through the late 1950s. Burns also appeared in her TV special, An Evening with Carol Channing, in 1966.

In 1961, Channing became one of the few performers nominated for a Tony Award for work in a revue (rather than a traditional book musical); she was nominated for Best Actress in a Musical for the short-lived revue Show Girl.

Channing came to national prominence as the star of Jerry Herman’s Hello, Dolly! (1964). Her performance as Dolly Levi won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical.

In the 1960s she was often invited to major events, including the White House, the Democratic convention in 1964 in Atlantic City, New Jersey where she sang “Hello, Lyndon” for Lyndon B. Johnson’s campaign. In 1967, she also became the first celebrity to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show.

Channing reprised her role of Lorelei Lee when the musical Lorelei and she performed songs from Hello, Dolly during a special television show in London in 1979.

Channing also appeared in a number of films, including The First Traveling Saleslady (1956), in which she gave future star Clint Eastwood his first onscreen kiss;

the cult film Skidoo; and Thoroughly Modern Millie. For Millie she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and was awarded a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture.

Due to her success on Broadway in Hello Dolly! and her co-starring role in Thoroughly Modern Millie, Channing attracted the attention of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, who were interested in starring her in a sitcom. Directed and produced by Arnaz and written by Bob Carroll Jr. and Madelyn Davis (who co-wrote I Love Lucy and The Lucy Show), The Carol Channing Show starred Channing as Carol Hunnicut, a small-town girl trying and failing to make it in New York City show business, but did not sell as a series.

In 1993, she poked a little fun at herself in an episode of The Nanny. 

In January 2003, Channing recorded the audiobook of her best-selling autobiography Just Lucky, I Guess: A Memoir of Sorts. In January 2012, the documentary Carol Channing: Larger Than Life (which chronicles Channing’s life and career) was released.

Channing was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1981 and received a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 1995. She continued to perform and make appearances well into her 90s, singing songs from her repertoire and sharing stories with fans, cabaret-style. She was one of the “legends” interviewed in the award-winning documentary, Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There. She released her autobiography Just Lucky I Guess in 2002, and Larger Than Life was released in 2012, a documentary film about her career.

Channing died from natural causes on January 15, 2019, at her home in Rancho Mirage, California at the age of 97, 16 days before her 98th birthday. On January 16, the lights on Broadway were dimmed in honor of Channing. A crowd congregated outside the St. James Theatre, as it had also been the anniversary of the opening of the original Broadway production of Hello, Dolly!  Her ashes were sprinkled between the Curran Theatre and the Geary Theater in San Francisco.