Marian Mercer, Actress and Singer with Flair for Comedy

Marian Mercer, an actress and singer who worked extensively in television and theater, and won a Tony Award for the long-running musical comedy Promises, Promises, died April 27, 2011, in Newbury Park, California. She was 75.

According to news reports, the cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease.

She was born November 26, 1935, in Akron, Ohio, and earned a degree in music at the University of Michigan. She made her stage debut in a production of The Happiest Millionaire at the Palmtree Playhouse in Sarasota, Florida.

In 1960 she made her Broadway debut in the Frank Loesser musical Greenwillow. The next year she took over the title role in an off-Broadway production of the musical parody Little Mary Sunshine.

Mercer won a Tony and a Drama Desk Award for Promises, Promises, the Neil Simon musical remake of the movie The Apartment. The hit show ran for 1,281 performances.

She also garnered solid notices for the 1978 revival of Stop the World, I Want to Get Off, in which she portrayed the various girlfriends of the success-hungry hero, played by Sammy Davis Jr.

Mercer also did repertory theater, including at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, where she appeared in dramas such as Twelfth Night and Chekhov in Yalta.

A knack for comedy resulted in frequent television roles, including regular appearances on variety shows starring Andy Williams, Dom DeLuise, Jonathan Winters and Dean Martin. In the 1980s she played Nancy Beebe, the stern hostess of a Los Angeles restaurant, in the comedy series It’s a Living, which ran on ABC from 1980 to 1982, and in syndication under the title Making a Living from 1985 to 1989. She also had roles on St. Elsewhere, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Love, American Style, Empty Nest, Touched by an Angel and Providence.

Mercer's first marriage ended in divorce. Survivors include her second husband and daughter, Deirdre Whitaker.