Celeste Holm

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Celeste Holm (April 29, 1917 – July 15, 2012) was an American actress and singer. Born in New York City, she grew up traveling because her parents worked abroad. She studied drama at the University of Chicago and began acting on stage in the late 1930s. Holm’s Broadway breakthrough came in 1943 as Ado Annie in Oklahoma!. She signed with 20th Century Fox and made her film debut in 1946 in Three Little Girls in Blue. For Gentleman's Agreement (1947) she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and she was later nominated for Come to the Stable (1949) and All About Eve (1950). She also appeared in The Snake Pit (1948), A Letter to Three Wives (1949), and High Society (1956). Holm originated the role of Ado Annie in Oklahoma! on Broadway, making her one of the era’s best-known musical stars.

Preferring live theater, she did fewer films after the 1940s, but she remained active in film and television. Her later film work included The Tender Trap (1955) and High Society (1956), and she had many TV roles and specials, plus the long-running soap Loving. Holm received many honors: she has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Sarah Siddons Award, and induction into the American Theater Hall of Fame, among others. She was married five times and had two sons, including Ted Nelson, the Internet pioneer. Celeste Holm died in New York City at age 95.