Award-winning actress and singer Bebe Neuwirth was born on December 31, 1958 in Princeton, New Jersey. She began to study dance when she was just five years old, and when she entered the Juilliard School in New York City, she chose dance as her area of concentration. During her tenure in the school, from 1976 to 1977, she performed with the Princeton Ballet Company, and also appeared in community theater productions.
Neuwirth began her professional career on Broadway, beginning with her debut in a production of the musical A Chorus Line in 1980. She later became known for her performances, eventually earning her first Tony award in 1986 for her work in the musical Sweet Charity. She received further acclaim in the 1996 revival of the musical Chicago, where her portrayal of killer Velma Kelly earned her a Drama Desk Award and a Tony. In 2004, she mounted her own show, Here Lies Jenny, where she sang and danced with the assistance of a four-person cast.
Neuwirth also had a notable career for the screen. She is perhaps most known for playing the character of Lilith Sternin, the rigidly intellectual and emotionally repressed psychologist. The character debuted in 1986, on an episode of Cheers, where fellow psychiatrist Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) falls head over heels for her. She eventually became a recurring character until the series’ end in 1993, during which the two married, had a child, and separated. She reprised the character on Cheers’ successful spin-off series Frasier, and over twelve episodes in eleven years, the two’s relationship grew to become warm and close despite their separation. Neuwirth won two Emmys, in 1990 and 1991, for her work on Cheers; she was nominated for a third in 1995, for her work in Frasier.
Apart form the aforementioned, she appeared in three short-lived drama programs: Deadline, Hack and Law & Order: Trial by Jury. She also starred in several films, including Jumanji, Liberty Heights, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, and Tadpole, which earned her accolades from the Seattle Film Critics.
