Mary Martin

Actor

Name at birth: Mary Virginia Martin

Mary Martin was a Broadway superstar in the 1950s, when she played spunky characters like Peter Pan and Maria von Trapp and won four Tony Awards in 13 years. Martin's stardom as a singer, dancer and actress began in New York City in 1938 with her nightly show-stopping rendition of "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" in the Cole Porter musical Leave it to Me. She then made 10 films in four years with Paramount Pictures, but her real power remained on the Broadway stage, where she returned in the 1940s. Four Tony Awards for lead roles followed: special recognition in 1948 for the touring production of Annie Get Your Gun and best actress in a musical for South Pacific (1950), Peter Pan (1955) and The Sound of Music (1960). (Both South Pacific and The Sound of Music were written by Broadway titans Rodgers and Hammerstein.) Martin was in her 40's when she started flying around the stage, suspended by cables, as Peter Pan, the magical, elf-like boy who refuses to grow up -- a role she recreated on network television.

Extra credit: Martin was 16 when she married Texas accountant Benjamin Hagman, with whom she had one child; they divorced in 1935. In 1940, she married Paramount editor and producer Richard Halliday, who became her manager. They had a daughter, Heller... Martin reportedly turned down a role in the hit TV series Dallas (1978). Had she accepted, she would have played Miss Ellie, mother of J.R. Ewing, who was played by her son, Larry Hagman.

Other Texans with Broadway roles in their resumes include Carol Burnett, Irene Ryan and Dooley Wilson.

Blog posts mentioning Mary Martin:
Mysterious Larry HagEman Mary Martin, Ageless Wonder New This Week