Paula Kelly, an Emmy-nominated actress, dancer and singer who became a leading black performer on Broadway in the 1960s and later turned to supporting roles on film and television, died Feb. 8 at a care facility in Whittier, California. She was 77.
Kelly was born in Jacksonville, Florida, on Oct. 21, 1942, and raised in Harlem.
Her death was confirmed by her partner of 17 years and sole immediate survivor, George Parkington, who did not give a precise cause. She had been ailing and was recently released from the hospital, he said.
Tall and graceful, Kelly was once praised by director and choreographer Bob Fosse as "the best dancer I've ever seen," according to Rose Eichenbaum's book "The Dancer Within," and began her career in the 1960s with the Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey and Donald McKayle dance companies.
She also toured with Harry Belafonte and Miriam Makeba, twirled alongside Sammy Davis Jr. and Gene Kelly on dance specials and variety shows, acted in Broadway productions directed by improv guru Paul Sills and accompanied the UCLA marching band at the Academy Awards in 1969, performing a playful solo routine to "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" that introduced her to millions of viewers nationwide.
"I suspect you are going to notice her - cool and angular and with legs as elegantly articulated as an aristocratic crane's - wherever she turns up, this year or next," New York Times theater critic Walter Kerr wrote in 1971, after Kelly starred in Sills's adaptation of Ovid's "Metamorphoses." "Some performers are performers; a few are presences."
Kelly made her Broadway debut in 1964 with the musical "Something More!" and, after being spotted at a Caesars Palace dance show in Las Vegas, was cast in the musical "Sweet Charity" on London's West End, winning a British theater award for her supporting role as a ballroom dancer-for-hire.
"Sweet Charity" was a 1969 movie by Fosse, with Kelly appearing alongside Shirley MacLaine and Chita Rivera.
"Never in my life had I seen such elegance, raw talent and breath taking honesty on screen," filmmaker Lee Daniels wrote in a 2016 Time magazine article, recalling Kelly's performance. "She is an unsung hero and the reason that I am here."
"Sweet Charity" launched Kelly's film career, leading to roles as a nurse in the science-fiction thriller "The Andromeda Strain" (1971) and a love interest in "Soylent Green" (1973), which imagined a dystopian future - 2022 - in which the world faced food shortages amid a climate catastrophe.
At a time when relatively few movie parts existed for African Americans, Kelly also starred in black-oriented films such as "Cool Breeze" (1972), a remake of "The Asphalt Jungle" starring Thalmus Rasulala, and "Trouble Man" (1972), featuring Robert Hooks and a soundtrack by Marvin Gaye.
Her other film roles included Dahomey Queen in the CIA movie "The Spook Who Sat By the Door" (1973); Leggy Peggy, in "Uptown Saturday Night" (1974), an action comedy starring Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby and Harry Belafonte; and Satin Doll, a stripper in "Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling" (1986), Richard Pryor's sole feature film as a director.
She also became a frequent TV guest star, appearing in programs such as "The Carol Burnett Show," "Sanford and Son," "Police Woman," "Hill Street Blues," "Kojak" and "Golden Girls." In 1984, she played a madam on the soap opera "Santa Barbara" and a public defender on the NBC sitcom "Night Court," earning her first Emmy nomination but leaving the show after only one season. She received another Emmy nomination for "The Women of Brewster Place," in 1989.
Paula Alma She told the New Pittsburgh Courier, "The only time I feel complete expression is when I'm dancing. Then I feel I have no problems, no worries, no hang-ups; I feel I could do anything in the world."