| Sandy Duncan | |
|---|---|
Duncan (center), with the cast of The Sandy Duncan Show, 1972. |
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| Born | Sandra Kay Duncan February 20, 1946 Henderson, Texas, US |
| Occupation | Actress/Singer |
| Years active | 1958–present |
| Spouse | Don Correia (1980–present) Thomas Calcaterra (1973–1979) Bruce Scott (1968–1972) |
| Children | Jeffrey, Michael |
Sandra Kay "Sandy" Duncan (born February 20, 1946) is an American singer, dancer and actress of stage and television, recognized through a blonde, pixie cut hairstyle and perky demeanor. She is best known for her performances in the Broadway revival of Peter Pan and in the sitcom The Hogan Family.
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She was born in Henderson, Texas (the seat of Rusk County), and grew up in nearby Tyler. Her parents were Mancil Ray and Sylvia Duncan. Mancil was the son of a mule team operator William Joseph Duncan.
She started her entertainment career at age 12, working in a local production of The King and I for $150 a week.[1]
In the mid-1960s, Duncan was an unknown actress in Los Angeles when she was selected for a part in a TV commercial for United California Bank (later to become part of Wells Fargo Bank), portraying a bank teller who finds it impossible to pronounce the name of customer "Nicholas Janopoporopolus", despite several tries. (She apologetically asks, "Do you mind if I just call you 'Nick'?") In 1968, she spent a brief time acting in the soap opera Search for Tomorrow.
In 1970, she was named one of the "most promising faces of tomorrow" by Time magazine. Also that year, she starred in the Broadway revival of The Boy Friend, where she received excellent reviews. Duncan made her feature film debut co-starring opposite Dean Jones in the Walt Disney family comedy The Million Dollar Duck. She was then cast as "Amy Cooper" in the Paramount film version of Star Spangled Girl, based on the Broadway play by Neil Simon. Both movies performed poorly at the box office.
In the fall of 1971, Duncan starred as "Sandy Stockton" in the CBS sitcom Funny Face. The program was put on the Saturday night primetime schedule between All in the Family and The New Dick Van Dyke Show. Although critics dismissed the show, they praised Duncan, especially TV Guide columnist Cleveland Amory, who described her as "a wonderful comedienne". Meanwhile, shortly after the premiere, Duncan underwent surgery on her left eye to remove a benign tumor. As a result, she lost vision in the eye. (It was not replaced with a prosthetic eye, as some urban myths claim.) Though Duncan's recovery from the operation was rapid, CBS suspended production on the show until the following year, after the 12th installment had been filmed; the original series pilot served as the 13th (and final) episode. At first, Nielsen ratings for Funny Face were low, ranking in the lower 50s; eventually, they climbed up to #17, and it was deemed the best liked new show of that TV season. For all her efforts, Duncan received an Emmy Award nomination for "Outstanding Continued Performance By An Actress In A Leading Role In A Comedy Series". In September 1972, the program returned as The Sandy Duncan Show, now with a revised format and new writers; it also had a new timeslot of Sunday nights at 8:30 P.M. Critical reaction to the show was similar to that for Funny Face, but without the strong Saturday night lead-in of All in the Family, the ratings sank. After 13 episodes, CBS cancelled the series.
In 1976, Duncan played the title role in a TV musical adaptation of Pinocchio, which featured Danny Kaye as "Mister Geppetto" and Flip Wilson as "the Fox". She also guest-starred in a first season episode of The Muppet Show. Next, for her performance as "Missy Anne Reynolds" in the miniseries Roots, she earned another Emmy nomination.
It was then that she went back to Broadway for many years. In 1979, her run as the title role in Peter Pan won her many accolades. She also had replacement roles in My One and Only and Chicago.
Duncan has been nominated for a Tony Award three times: in 1969, as "Featured Actress (Musical)" in Canterbury Tales; in 1971, as "Best Actress (Musical)" in The Boy Friend; and in 1980, as "Best Actress (Musical)" in Peter Pan.
In 1972, an animated version of Duncan (who contributed her own voice) appeared in "Sandy Duncan's Jekyll and Hyde", an episode of the CBS Saturday morning cartoon The New Scooby-Doo Movies.
In 1978, she starred in Disney's The Cat from Outer Space alongside Ken Berry, Harry Morgan and Roddy McDowall.
During the 1980s, Duncan was the commercial spokesperson for the introduction of Nabisco's Wheat Thins.
In 1984, she starred in a song and dance review called 5-6-7-8...Dance! at Radio City Music Hall.
In 1987, she joined the cast of NBC's Valerie's Family (previously known as Valerie, later to be retitled The Hogan Family) after Valerie Harper left the sitcom, Duncan filling in for the mother role as "Aunt Sandy" [Hogan], the patriarch's sister. (She stayed with the show through the final season on CBS until its cancellation in 1991.) In addition, she appeared in the first three Barney and the Backyard Gang children's videos. Thinking the videos were not going to be popular , she eventually departed from the production; subsequently, when they were reworked into the hit PBS show Barney & Friends, she was surprised by their success.
She has also provided the voice for other animated characters. She was "Vixey" in Disney's The Fox and the Hound (1981), the speaking and singing voice of "Firefly" in the pilot episode of My Little Pony (1984), "Peepers" in Rock-A-Doodle (1991), "Queen Uberta" in The Swan Princess (1994), and as the singer and narrator in episodes of Mickey Mouse Works (1999).
In 2003, she appeared in the rotating cast of the Off-Broadway staged reading of Wit & Wisdom.[2] In May 2008, she performed one of the lead roles in the musical No, No, Nanette; a production of the City Center's annual Encores! series in New York City. In April 2009, she performed the lead role in the play Driving Miss Daisy at Casa Mañana Theatre in Fort Worth, Texas. In September 2009, she played the lead role in Tennessee Williams' play "The Glass Menagerie" at the Mountain Playhouse in Jennerstown, Pennsylvania. She has also been in many travelling stage productions, including The King and I.
She met singer-actor Bruce Scott during the Off-Broadway production of Your Own Thing, and from 1968-72 (some sources report 1969-71), they were married.
Her second marriage was to Dr. Thomas Calcaterra on January 10, 1973; it lasted until 1979. Calcaterra is a head/neck oncologist who practices at UCLA Medical Center Division of Head and Neck Surgery and teaches surgery at UCLA Medical School.
Since July 21, 1980, she has been married to Don Correia. They have two sons: Jeffrey (b. 1983) and Michael (b. 1984). She later said of their births, "I gained 60 pounds with each baby—it's just the way I do pregnancy".
In Taylorville, Illinois (near Springfield), a street was named "Sandy Duncan Drive" in her honor because her character on Funny Face and The Sandy Duncan Show was from Taylorville.