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A versatile
actress who has displayed a talent for both comedy and drama, Bebe Neuwirth is
also a gifted dancer and vocalist who has won acclaim for her work on the
musical stage, though she's still best known to television viewers as Lilith
Sternin, Frazier Crane's tightly wound girlfriend (and later wife) on the
popular comedy Cheers. Born Beatrice Neuwirth on New Year's Eve, 1958, she was
raised in Princeton, NJ, where her father, Lee Neuwirth, was a mathematician and
her mother, Sydney Anne Neuwirth, was an artist. Bebe began taking dance lessons
at the age of five, and, while a student at Princeton High School, she began
appearing in local ballet productions and community theater productions. After
high school, Neuwirth studied dance at New York's prestigious Juilliard School,
and in 1980 she made her professional debut as Shelia, a once-famous dancer
looking to make a comeback, in a touring production of the long-running musical
A Chorus Line.In 1982, Neuwirth hit Broadway in two different shows, Dancin',
directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse, and Little Me. In 1986, Neuwirth won
the starring role in another Fosse musical, a revival of Sweet Charity, which
later earned her a Tony award and cemented her reputation on Broadway |
