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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.
That year also marked Neuwirth's television debut (not counting a brief
appearance as a member of the Whitney Dance Theater on the daytime drama The
Edge of Night in 1981) with her first appearance as Lilith Sternin on Cheers;
Lilith soon became a regular fixture on Cheers and Neuwirth won two Emmy awards
for her work until Lilith was written out of the show (at Neuwirth's request) in
1992, to allow Neuwirth to pursue film and stage work. Lilith, however,
occasionally made return visits to Cheers, and later on Kelsey Grammer's
spin-off series, Frasier. Neuwirth made her feature-film debut in 1989 with a
small role as a guidance counselor in Say Anything..., and while a steady stream
of supporting roles followed in such films as Bugsy, Green Card, and Jumanji,
she had a hard time finding screen roles which suited her edgy charm. She
continued to have better luck on-stage, and in 1997 her performance in the
Broadway revival of Chicago won her the Tony and Drama Desk awards. After
scoring meatier roles in the films Summer of Sam and Liberty Heights, Neuwirth
returned to episodic television in the well-reviewed but short-lived drama
series Deadline, in which she worked alongside Oliver Platt, Lili Taylor, and
Tom Conti. In 2002, Neuwirth finally scored a film role that truly suited her
talents as Diane, a sexy fourtysomething woman who seduces her best friend's
teenage son in the independent comedy Tadpole. |
