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Helen Gallagher, the spunky Broadway triple threat who received two Tony Awards and starred as the matriarch Maeve Ryan for all 13-plus years of the ABC soap opera Ryan’s Hope, has died. She was 98.

Gallagher died Sunday at a hospital in Manhattan, Edith Meeks, executive and artistic director at New York’s Herbert Berghof Studio, told The Washington Post. Gallagher taught a class in “Singing for the Musical Theater” there for years.

The radiant singer, dancer and actress received her first Tony in 1952 for her portrayal of showgirl Gladys Bumps in a revival of the Rodgers & Hart musical Pal Joey, then landed another in 1971 for her turn as flapper Lucille Early, another wise-cracking character, in a revival of Busby Berkeley’s No, No, Nanette.

“When Miss Gallagher sings the blues of a lovelorn wife with piece of chiffon and a chorus of properly epicene tailor’s dummies, she makes the...

Marge Champion, a dancer who achieved nationwide television fame in the 1950s with her husband and dance partner Gower Champion and even then had already contributed to cinema history as a movement model for three classic Walt Disney animated films, died Wednesday in Los Angeles. She was 101.

Her death was announced by her son Gregg Champion. A cause was not specified.

The daughter of a Hollywood dance coach, Champion was already performing in public when she was recruited by Disney to serve as the movement model for the lead character in 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the same year she entered a three-year marriage to Disney animator Arthur Babbitt. Champion would also provide the movements for the Blue Fairy in 1940’s Pinocchio and the ballet-dancing hippos in 1940’s Fantasia.

But if her work had already been seen by millions, Champion didn’t become recognizably famous until the late 1940s,...

Marge Champion, a dancer and actress known for “Show Boat” and “Give a Girl a Break,” as well the model used by Walt Disney animators for the dancing in “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” has died. She was 101.

Champion died Wednesday in Los Angeles while quarantined with her son Gregg Champion, who confirmed her death to the New York Times.

At 14, Champion, born Marjorie Celeste Belcher, was hired as a model by Walt Disney Studios, dancing the part of Snow White so that animators could model her movements and enhance the realism of what would be Disney’s first animated feature film. Disney would later use her as a model for the Blue Fairy in “Pinocchio” (1940) and the hippo with twinkle toes in “Fantasia” (1940).

You can see a video of Belcher dancing to one of the songs from “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” below alongside the final footage of the film.

Rick McKayhas shared another video from his trilogy, Broadway The Golden Age. In his words, 'Happy 96th Birthday, Marge Champion Marge is seen her in her shoot for Rick McKay's Broadway The Golden Age Film Trilogy, in which she tells tales of her career. From being the artistanimator's inspiration for Snow White, to dancing through the Golden Age of Hollywood on the arm of her husband and dance partner Gower Champion, to winning an Emmy Award for choreographing the wonderful film, Queen Of The Stardust Ballroom, Marge has done it all and is in no rush to quit. She co-starred opposite her old friend and early partner Donald Saddler on Broadway in Follies in 2001 and again on camera in the 2012 film about them both, Never Stand Still.'...

Distinguished film actor, five-time Tony Award winner, star of "Murder, She Wrote" (the longest-running detective drama in television history), and currently co-starring in "A Little Night Music" on Broadway, Angela Lansbury is now also the honorary chairwoman of Career Transition for Dancers. With offices in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, the organization provides counseling, scholarships, workshops, and resource centers—all free of charge—to help dancers establish themselves in new careers when dancing is no longer an option.But why would Lansbury, a performer known largely as an actor and a singer, commit herself to an organization designed specifically to serve dancers? "Because when one is playing a leading role in a musical production on Broadway, the folks you are most in touch with are the dancers," says Lansbury, who has performed such roles in nine Broadway or Broadway-bound musicals, including "Anyone Can Whistle" (1964), "Mame" (1966 and 1983), "Gypsy" (1974), and "Sweeney Todd...