Phyllis Newman Departs

NEW YORK - JUNE 07:  Actress Phyllis Newman attends the 63rd Annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall on June 7, 2009 in New York City.  (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images)
Actress Phyllis Newman attends the 63rd Annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall on June 7, 2009 in New York City. Getty Images

Phyllis Newman, the famous Broadway actress, was telling me how hard it was raising her two children. In an interview in 1981 at the Russian Tea Room she said, “Now that Adam and Amanda are grown up, I can be a liberated woman.” Adam had his bar mitzvah at Rodeph Sholom in Manhattan.

The night before, Phyllis opened downtown in “I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking it on the Road.” Her husband, the prominent playwright Adolph Green, was there but, she complained, “he doesn’t give me notes, only encouragement. It’s as if I had a husband in the shoe business rather than show business.”

Phyllis was born in Jersey City, NJ, to Jewish immigrants Rachel Gottlieb of Lithuania and Sigmund Arthur Newman of Warsaw. Her sister Shirley Porte was president of her chapter ORT, and another sister Elaine Sandlaufer was also active in ORT.

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In 1977 she and her husband and children accompanied Leonard Bernstein to Israel where he conducted the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. She’s passionate about Israel and supported Jewish causes. “If I got paid for all the benefits I did for UJA,” she said, “I’d be the richest woman in the world.”

Phyllis won a Tony Award in 1962 for best featured actress in a musical for “Subways Are for Sleeping,” written by husband Adolph and Betty Comden. Phyllis said her husband had voted for Barbra Streisand.

Phyllis died of a lung disorder at age 86 on Sept. 15, 2019, at her home in Manhattan.

About the Author
Tim Boxer is a former New York Post columnist, and is longtime columnist for the New York Jewish Week. He is also editor of 15MinutesMagazine.com, is the author of Jewish Celebrity Hall of Fame, interviews of Hollywood stars about their Jewish roots.
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