Georgia Brown
b. Lillie Klot, 21 October 1933, Whitechapel, London, England, d. 5 July 1992. Vocalist and actress Brown came from a poor working-class area of the east end and made her way to Broadway in true storybook fashion. Although jazz was her early influence (she adopted her name from Sweet Georgia Brown) the attraction of the British music hall tradition took over and from this she found great success for four decades. Her earliest stage show was with Brecht's Threepenny Opera in 1956. She was soon a major star being elevated to this position by the extraordinary success of Lionel Bart's Oliver. Her performance as Nancy remains her greatest, and her interpretation of As Long As He Needs Me gave such drama and emotion to the song, that nobody has been able to equal (although Shirley Bassey had the hit record in 1960). She appeared in two more of Bart's productions, Maggie May and the film, Lock Up Your Daughters and continued to work with a lower profile on television, stage and in films. Her film credits included A Study In Terror (1965), The Fixer (1968) and The Seven Per Cent Solution (1976) in which she sang Stephen Sondheim's I Never Do Anything Twice. After moving to the USA she performed in two shows on Broadway, Carmelina (1979) and Roza (1987). She returned to London to star in 42nd Street and was a success in Steven Berkoff's Greek. Her most recent work was in her own show Georgia Brown And Friends, an apt title, as she had many friends and critical admirers and rarely received a bad review in her entire career.