Dorothy Loudon was an American actress and singer, born on September 17, 1925, in Boston, Massachusetts. She shaved eight years off her age later in life. Raised in Claremont, New Hampshire, and Indianapolis, Indiana, Loudon attended Syracuse University on a drama scholarship but did not graduate. Instead, she moved to New York City to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
She began her career singing in nightclubs, combining song with ad-libbed comedy patter. Her television appearances included The Perry Como Show and The Ed Sullivan Show. Loudon made her stage debut in 1962 in The World of Jules Feiffer, a play with incidental music by Stephen Sondheim, under the direction of Mike Nichols.
That same year, she made her Broadway debut in Nowhere to Go but Up, which ran for only two weeks but earned her good reviews and the Theatre World Award. In 1969, The Fig Leaves Are Falling ran for only four performances, although it won her the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance and a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical.
Loudon was chosen as the replacement for Carol Burnett when Burnett left The Garry Moore Show in 1962. Although the collaboration was not altogether successful, the excellent reviews she received for her Broadway debut in Nowhere to Go but Up proved prophetic. Coincidentally, the two roles Loudon later played so successfully on Broadway stage – Miss Hannigan and Dotty Otley – were both played by Burnett onscreen.
She also appeared as a frequent guest star on many New York-based comedy and game shows. In 1979, Loudon starred in the television series Dorothy, in which she portrayed a former showgirl teaching music and drama at a boarding school for girls. The show lasted only one season. Loudon appeared in only two films, playing an agent in the film Garbo Talks (1984) and a Southern eccentric in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997).
Loudon won the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical in 1977 for her performance as Miss Hannigan in Annie. She was also nominated for Tony Awards for her lead performances in the musicals The Fig Leaves Are Falling and Ballroom, as well as a Golden Globe award for her appearances on The Garry Moore Show.
