Obituaries : Vivienne Segal; Veteran of Musical Theater Roles

Vivienne Segal, the time-tested, durable star of the American musical theater whose portrayal of the tough-talking, obdurate older woman in “Pal Joey” helped catapult Gene Kelly to fame, is dead.

Dale Olson, a publicist and her longtime friend, said the onetime Ziegfeld Follies girl whose career spanned the glory days of operetta and radio was 95 when she died Tuesday in a West Los Angeles hospital.

She had made her home here for many years, Olson said.

As Vera Simpson, the older woman frustrated by her unrequited love for the ambitious heel Joey (played by Kelly), she brought a singular bite to the Rodgers-Hart musical.

New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson wrote of her rendition of “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered:”

“In a singularly sweet voice she sings some scabrous lyrics by Lorenz Hart to one of Richard Rodgers’ most haunting tunes.”

She won the Variety Drama Critics Poll and the Donaldson Award for the role, which she re-created in a 1952 revival with Harold Lang.

Born in Philadelphia, where she studied voice, Miss Segal made her first stage appearance in “Carmen” in 1914. She debuted at New York’s Casino Theater the following year in “The Blue Paradise” and toured with the production for two years.

Although her background was in more formal music, Miss Segal said comedy was her greatest satisfaction.

“I’ll tell you a secret,” she told the Los Angeles Times in 1940. “Every prima donna longs to be a comedienne and cavort, instead of standing still looking ga-ga while the tenor sings his love down her back.”

Miss Segal’s other Broadway credits included “The Ziegfeld Follies,” with Will Rogers and Fanny Brice; “I Married an Angel,” with Vera Zorina, “The Desert Song” and “The Three Musketeers.”

Her musical credits also included “Of Thee I Sing,” “Oh, Lady! Lady!,” “The Little Whopper,” “A Connecticut Yankee,” “Chocolate Soldier” and “Great to Be Alive.”

Her first film appearances were in early short subjects with sound, singing songs from “Sweethearts” and “Maytime.” She also was seen in such feature films as “Song of the West,” “Bride of the Regiment,” “Golden Dawn,” “Viennese Nights” and “The Cat and the Fiddle.”

On radio she was a soloist on the 1930s shows “Album of Familiar Music” “Waltz Time” and “Phillips.”

And on TV she was seen in “Studio One” and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.”

Her first marriage to actor Robert Downing Ames ended in divorce. Her second husband, television executive Hubbel Robinson, died in 1974. Miss Segal is survived by a sister, Louise Paget Kowalski of Los Angeles.

There will be no funeral services.