Newman was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, one of three daughters of a Jewish immigrant couple. Her mother, Rachel Gottlieb, from Lithuania, was professionally known as Marvelle the Fortune Teller.[1] Her father, Sigmund Newman, from Warsaw, billed himself as Gabel the Graphologist and hypnotist,[1] working with his wife in Atlantic City boardwalk amusements.[2] Newman performed on-stage as early as age four, impersonating Carmen Miranda, with encouragement from her father.[1]
Newman had two sisters, Shirley (Mrs. Elliott) Porte, and Elaine (Mrs. Harry) Sandaufer.[2] She attended Lincoln High School, where she was voted "Future Hollywood Star."[3]
Newman played Stella Deems in the 1985 staged concert version of Follies at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York. The concert produced both a cast recording as well as a filmed documentary, preserving her performance singing "Who's That Woman?". She recreated the role in the 1998 revival of Follies at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey.
An early television role for Newman was in a 1957 episode of Beverly Garland's crime drama Decoy. In 1960, she was cast as Doris Hudson on the CBS summer replacement series Diagnosis: Unknown, with Patrick O'Neal as Dr. Daniel Coffee.
Newman played the ever-congenial Gwen Hunter on The Equalizer in the 1986 episode "Breakpoint," in which she decides to make the best of a deadly-serious hostage crisis created by the terrorist leader, played by Tony Shalhoub, and chat with her terrorist captor, portrayed by Ned Eisenberg. She also guest-starred as Elaine, the mother of Melissa (played by Melanie Mayron), on the 1980s television series Thirtysomething.
In addition to her appearances on original cast recordings, Newman recorded Those Were the Days, an album of contemporary songs, for Sire Records in 1968. In England, the album was released as Phyllis Newman's World of Music on London Records.[citation needed]
The Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative
In 1995, Newman founded The Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative of the Actors Fund of America. Since then, she hosted the annual gala Nothing Like a Dame, which has raised more than US $3.5 million and served 2,500 women in the entertainment industry.[1][11]
In 2009, Newman received the first Isabelle Stevenson Award, a special Tony Award, for her work with the Health Initiative. This award recognizes "an individual from the theatre community for [his or her] humanitarian work."[12][13]
Memoir
Her memoir Just in Time— Notes from My Life relates her career; life with her husband, lyricist and playwright Adolph Green; and her experience with breast cancer.[14]
Personal life and death
Newman was married to lyricist and playwright Adolph Green from 1960 until his death in 2002. She was the mother of journalist Adam Green and singer-songwriter Amanda Green. Newman died on September 15, 2019, at the age of 86, from complications of a lung disorder.[15][2][16]
