"I know when I'm bad, I know when I'm good, and I know when I'm everything in between. I don't have any delusions of grandeur or delusions of failure. In terms of my work, I've got a pretty cold honest eye."
- Bebe Neuwirth
Beatrice Neuwirth was born on December 31, 1958 in Princeton, New Jersey to parents Lee and Sydney Anne Neuwirth, a mathematician and an artist. Bebe started performing early, beginning to dance at the age of five. By the time she reached high school, Bebe was training at the Princeton Ballet Company, and appearing in community theater and local ballet productions.
After Bebe graduated high school, she went on to study dance at New York's Juilliard School from 1976 to 1977, subsequently touring in "A Chorus Line" from 1978 to 1981, playing various roles; most notably the character of 'Sheila', a tough-talking former dance starlet. She also hit Broadway in 1982, appearing in such shows as Dancin' and Little Me. Later, in 1986, she would appear in the musical Sweet Charity in the role of Nickie, for which she won a Tony Award.
That same year also brought Bebe to the public eye in her most famous role, Dr. Lilith Sternin, significant other (and eventually wife, and subsequently ex-wife) of Dr. Frasier Crane on the hit series Cheers. Her cold, yet comedic portrayal of Lilith scored her two consecutive Emmy Awards in 1990 and 1991 for Outstanding Supporting Actress. So she could focus on her feature film and stage work, Bebe requested to be written out of Cheers in 1992. After Cheers ended its eleven year run, Bebe frequently reprised the role of Lilith on the hit Cheers spinoff Frasier, which would earn her an Emmy nomination in 1995.
Bebe scored yet another Tony Award in 1997, playing Velma Kelly in the Broadway show Chicago, winning a Drama Desk award for the same role. She went on to appear in several movies including Bugsy, Green Card, Jumanji, Summer of Sam and Liberty Heights, as well as several TV shows including Dash and Lilly (for which she picked up yet another Emmy nomination), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, NewsRadio, The Adventures of Pete and Pete, and Wings.
Bebe married Paul Dorman in 1984, but the couple divorced in 1991. 1991 is also when she met Michael Danek, to whom she would later become engaged in 1997. She currently lives in New York City.
Noder's Note: Lilith was one of my favorite characters on Cheers. Yes, I do miss it. I created this writeup because I watched a good portion of Jumanji for the first time today, and saw she was in it. Boom.