Barbara Cook (October , â€" August , ) was an American actress and
singer who first came to prominence in the s as the lead in the
original Broadway musicals Plain and Fancy (), Candide () and The
Music Man () among others, winning a Tony Award for the last. She
continued performing mostly in theatre until the mid-s, when she began
a second career as a cabaret and concert singer. She also made
numerous recordings.During her years as Broadway’s leading ingénue,
Cook was lauded for her excellent lyric soprano voice. She was
particularly admired for her vocal agility, wide range, warm sound,
and emotive interpretations. As she aged her voice took on a darker
quality, even in her head voice, that was less prominent in her youth.
At the time of her death, Cook was widely recognized as one of the
"premier interpreters" of musical theatre songs and standards, in
particular the songs of composer Stephen Sondheim. Her subtle and
sensitive interpretations of American popular song continued to earn
high praise even into her eighties. She was named an honoree at the
Kennedy Center Honors.Cook was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the daughter
of Nell (née Harwell) and Charles Bunyan Cook. Her father was a
traveling hat salesman and her mother was an operator for Southern
Bell. Her parents divorced when she was a child and, after her only
sister died of whooping cough, Barbara lived alone with her mother.
She later described their relationship as "so close, too close. I
slept with my mother until I came to New York. Slept in the same bed
with her. That's just, it's wrong. But to me, it was the norm....As
far as she was concerned, we were one person." Though Barbara began
singing at an early age, at the Elks Club and to her father over the
phone, she spent three years after graduating from high school working
as a typist.
singer who first came to prominence in the s as the lead in the
original Broadway musicals Plain and Fancy (), Candide () and The
Music Man () among others, winning a Tony Award for the last. She
continued performing mostly in theatre until the mid-s, when she began
a second career as a cabaret and concert singer. She also made
numerous recordings.During her years as Broadway’s leading ingénue,
Cook was lauded for her excellent lyric soprano voice. She was
particularly admired for her vocal agility, wide range, warm sound,
and emotive interpretations. As she aged her voice took on a darker
quality, even in her head voice, that was less prominent in her youth.
At the time of her death, Cook was widely recognized as one of the
"premier interpreters" of musical theatre songs and standards, in
particular the songs of composer Stephen Sondheim. Her subtle and
sensitive interpretations of American popular song continued to earn
high praise even into her eighties. She was named an honoree at the
Kennedy Center Honors.Cook was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the daughter
of Nell (née Harwell) and Charles Bunyan Cook. Her father was a
traveling hat salesman and her mother was an operator for Southern
Bell. Her parents divorced when she was a child and, after her only
sister died of whooping cough, Barbara lived alone with her mother.
She later described their relationship as "so close, too close. I
slept with my mother until I came to New York. Slept in the same bed
with her. That's just, it's wrong. But to me, it was the norm....As
far as she was concerned, we were one person." Though Barbara began
singing at an early age, at the Elks Club and to her father over the
phone, she spent three years after graduating from high school working
as a typist.
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