The legends Broadway lost in 2015

A science-fiction icon, a
wisecracking comic legend, an
eccentric restaurateur, an avenger . . .
and an actor who held the stage for
eight hours in a Dickens of a play.
Here are a few notable Broadway
players who died in 2015.

He’ll always be known as Mr. Spock

in “Star Trek,” but Nimoy’s first love

was the theater. In 1977, as he

prepared to replace Anthony Perkins

in Broadway’s “Equus,” he told The

Post why he wanted to get back to

the footlights:

“Look, I left ‘Star Trek’ when I got

bored. I left ‘Mission: Impossible’

because I began to feel like a zombie

. . . There were no fleshed out

characters. I looked into the mirror

one morning and I asked, ‘Who are

you?’ And the mirror answered, ‘I

don’t know.’ I’d made a lot of money,

but I knew I had to buy my way out

of my contract. And I did. I’ve loved

the theater since I was 8. I needed

my fix.”

Anne Meara

Ben Stiller and mother Anne

Meara. Photo: osaswap 

When Meara and her husband, Jerry

Stiller, did interviews, they often

sounded like a comic turn they’d do

on the “The Ed Sullivan Show”: Jerry

did the setup, Anne delivered the

punch line. Here they are in a 1967

interview:

“We’ve just signed with Sullivan for

seven appearances next season — $

7,500 a show,” Stiller said.

What about the theater?

“I’d like to own one,” Meara jested.

“And I’d also like to do a musical

comedy on Broadway and to make a

movie on the Riviera.”

“What else would you like to do?”

Stiller asked.

“I’d like to be endowed by the Ford

Foundation,” she snapped back.

They talked of an upcoming TV

series and a life that was otherwise

routine, “Except for the telephone,”

Meara said. “We had to get an

unlisted number because we were

getting obscene calls — from our

relatives.”

Jean Claude Baker

LaToya Jackson (left) and Jean-

Claude Baker in 2013. Photo: osaswap 

Though he was never officially

adopted, Jean Claude Baker often

referred to the legendary Josephine

Baker as “mother.” He managed her

career at the end of her life, took her

surname and in 1983 opened a

shrine disguised as a restaurant,

Chez Josephine, on 42nd Street,

west of Ninth Avenue. The

neighborhood was a mess back then,

but Baker saw its charms:

“People are trying to clean up 42nd

Street, to take away the smell of

sadness and tragedy, but there is

excitement, life and joy too. There

are peep shows but also small

theaters and a beautiful Roman

Catholic church. I want Chez

Josephine to fit into its

surroundings: both theater and

church, where you can sin and be

forgiven at the same time. This place

used to be a massage parlor. What

do you think it was called? ‘The

French Parlor.’ And the sign in the

window? ‘Complete satisfaction.’

That’s my motto!”

Patrick Macnee

Patrick Macnee on “The

Avengers.” Photo: ITV/Entertainment/osaswap

This British actor was the very

definition of debonair, wearing a

bowler hat on TV’s “The Avengers”

and an ascot in the 1970 production

of “Sleuth.” But, as he admitted in a

1970 interview, he was most

comfortable in the buff:

“I live in California off the Malibu

Road. Whenever I get a chance, I go

to Elysium, which is a nudist colony

in the Topanga Valley. I find people

so much more interesting and

attractive without clothes than

dressed. Scientists, doctors, lawyers

and actors go there. I met an

astronomer and his wife there, and

quite frankly we have become much

better friends than we would have

had we met over a formal dinner

table.”

Roger Rees

Roger Rees and Chita Rivera. Photo:

Walter McBride/WireImage/osaswap