Ellen Hanley, 80; actress played LaGuardia’s wife in ‘Fiorello’

Ellen Hanley, 80, a stage actress best known for playing Fiorello LaGuardia’s first wife in the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical “Fiorello!” in 1959, died of a stroke Monday at a hospital in Norwalk, Conn., after a long battle with cancer.

Born May 15, 1926, in Lorain, Ohio, Hanley made her Broadway debut in “Annie Get Your Gun,” starring Ethel Merman, in 1946. The following year she appeared as Clothilde Pfefferkorn in “Barefoot Boy With Cheek,” a zany collegiate musical featuring Nancy Walker and Red Buttons.

In the 1952 revue “Two’s Company,” which starred Bette Davis, Hanley introduced the Vernon Duke-Ogden Nash song “Roundabout.”

Hanley also was in the cast of the 1959 musical “First Impressions,” based on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice.” During the show’s run, she replaced leading lady Polly Bergen as Austen’s spirited heroine, Elizabeth Bennet.