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Bernadette Peters, born February 28, 1948, Ozone Park, Queens, New York, is an American Tony Award-winning actress and singer.

She’s 59!

Bernadette Lazzara was born to an Italian-American family in Queens, New York. Her mother, Marguerite, started her in show business by putting her on the television show “Juvenile Jury” at the age of three-and-a-half. She later appeared on the television shows “Name That Tune” and “The Horn and Hardart Children’s Hour”. In her teen years, she attended the Quintano School for Young Professionals.

At the age of nine she got her Equity Card under the name of Bernadette Peters to avoid ethnic stereotyping; the stage name was taken from her father’s first name. She made her theatrical debut at age 9 in This is Goggle, directed by Otto Preminger, a comedy that closed during out-of-town tryouts, before reaching New York. She first appeared on the New York stage at age 10 in the New York City Center revival of The Most Happy Fella (1959). At 13 she was an understudy for Dainty June and one of the ensemble in a touring company of Gypsy. Upon graduation from high school, she started working steadily, appearing Off-Broadway in The Penny Friend (1966) and Curley McDimple (1967) and as an understudy on Broadway in The Girl In The Freudian Slip (1967). She made her on-stage Broadway debut in Johnny No-Trump in 1967. She appeared next as George M. Cohan’s sister, co-starring with Joel Grey in the Broadway musical George M! (1968), for which she received the Theatre World Award for a Debut Performance. But it was her next role, as Ruby in the 1968 Off-Broadway spoof of 1930s musicals, Dames at Sea, that brought her critical notice. (She had appeared in an earlier 1966 version of Dames at Sea at the off-off-Broadway performance club, the Caffe Cino.) (See Joe Cino)

She had starring roles in her next Broadway vehicles –Gelsomina in La Strada (one performance); Hildy in On the Town (73 performances); and Mabel Normand in Mack and Mabel (65 performances), but they had disappointingly short runs. Peters moved to Los Angeles in the early 1970’s, where she concentrated on television and film work. She did not appear on stage again until 1982 in the Off-Broadway Sally and Marsha.

She has appeared in 19 films, and is remembered mainly for the 1979 comedy classic The Jerk co-starring Steve Martin, whom she dated. She won a Golden Globe Award as Best Motion Picture Actress - Comedy/Musical for her performance as Eileen in the 1981 film Pennies From Heaven, again co-starring with Martin. She most recently appeared with three generations of the Kirk Douglas family in It Runs in the Family. In May 2006 she filmed a movie in Italy, titled “Come le formiche”, co-starring with F. Murray Abraham; there is no release date announced.

A Bit of Trivia:

• Peters appeared on the cover of the December 1981 issue of Playboy Magazine, as well as in a full inside spread, featuring her posing in lingerie designed by Bob Mackie.

• She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located in Hollywood, California, in April 1987, at 6706 Hollywood Blvd.

• She was honored as the Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year for 1987.

• In 1994, she received the Sarah Siddons Award for outstanding performance in a Chicago theatrical production.

• She was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame for 1995, in a ceremony at the Gershwin Theatre, New York, becoming the youngest person so honored.

• She was inducted into The Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame on June 28, 2002.

Other February 28th Birthdays:

Charles Durning-Actor -84
Gavin MacLeod-Actor/the Love Boat -76
Frank Bonner-Actor/WKRP -65
Kelly Bishop-Actress/Gilmore Girls -63
Mercedes Ruehl-Actress -59
Gilbert Gottfried-Comedian -52
John Turturro-Actor -50
Cindy Wilson-Singer/B-52’s -50
Rae Dawn Chong-Actress -46
Robert Sean Leonard-Actor -38