Mimi Hines, 1933 – 2024

Pixie-ish musical comedy actress Mimi Hines, 91, died at her Las Vegas home on Oct. 21.  The Canadian-born Hines was married to actor and comic Phil Ford from 1954-72, and the couple became hits on the nightclub and variety show scene. She replaced Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl, and Marcia Lewis in Grease, and toured the country in road shows of other Broadway shows (including Hello, Dolly!, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, Anything Goes, The Pajama Game, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and Nunsense). She appeared extensively on the nightclub circuit, and occasionally on TV, in The Bobby Darin Show, Love American Style, Frasier. Hines told Playbill in 2000 that she would love to return to Broadway: “Always. My bags are always packed for that! ‘Broadway, My Street!’” She dished to TheaterMania about her Hollywood Squares costar Paul Lynde: “We were like the three musketeers: Paul, Wayland Flowers, and me. We were waiting for Paul in his hotel suite one night because we were going to go see Manhattan Transfer. Wayland says, ‘Come on, Paul, we’re going to be late.’ Finally, he comes out of his room wearing a pith helmet. I said, ‘Paul, that’s a great hat.’ He said, ‘Yes, darling, it’s the only one I could find without a veil.’”