Carol Channing, the legendary Broadway actress who portrayed Dolly Levi in “Hello, Dolly!” has died, her publicist said in a statement Tuesday. Channing was 97.
Channing died early Tuesday morning at her home in Rancho Mirage, Calif.
“It is with extreme heartache, that I have to announce the passing of an original Industry Pioneer, Legend and Icon – Miss Carol Channing. I admired her before I met her, and have loved her since the day she stepped … or fell rather … into my life,” her publicist B Harlan Boll told Broadway World in a statement. “It is so very hard to see the final curtain lower on a woman who has been a daily part of my life for more than a third of it. We supported each other, cried with each other, argued with each other, but always ended up laughing with each other.
“Saying good-bye is one of the hardest things I have ever had to do, but I know that when I feel those uncontrollable urges to laugh at everything and/or nothing at all, it will be because she is with me, tickling my funny bone.”
Channing would have turned 98 on Jan. 31.
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