ROSE MARIE
Okay, so she had a little help -- talented writers, directors, and co-stars. But basically that classic, independent, funny, vulnerable character, Sally Rogers, of "The Dick Van Dyke Show," was the creation of Rose Marie, the actress who gave Sally life and turned millions of viewers into her personal cheering section.
Her work on that series earned her three Emmy nominations, which she attributed to her experience of having been a performer since the age of 3. As "Baby Rose Marie," and only five years old, she was signed by NBC to star in her own radio show heard coast to coast. At the age of 7 NBC was forced to put Rose Marie on the road to tour the major cities just to prove that the deep "adult like" voice did indeed stem from a child and not from an adult. She appeared in her first film with W. C. Fields in 1933, "International House." At age 11 she dropped the "Baby" and continued her career as Rose Marie. As a teenager, our husty-throated lady became a headliner at leading nightclubs across the country from New York’s famed "Copacabana" and "Latin Quarter," to the Las Vegas Strip, where along with Jimmy Durante and Xavier Cugat, she opened the first luxury casino-club, The Flamingo. The years that followed found Rose Marie a regular headliner on the growing Las Vegas Strip, playing the Riviera Hotel, Sahara, Thunderbird and Harrah’s in Reno and Tahoe.
Gathering a wealth of show-biz knowledge from working with the greats of comedy and song, Rose Marie became expert in comedic delivery herself...truly a Mistress of Versatility. She stopped long enough to gain great critical acclaim on Broadway as co-star with Milton Berle in "Spring in Brazil," Zero Mostel in "Lunatics and Lovers," and Phil Silvers in "Top Banana." She followed with the national touring companies of "Call Me Madam" and "Bye Bye Birdie." The film version of "Top Banana" brought Rose Marie back to motion pictures. (As a child star, she made numerous musical shorts and comedy films). Her recent films include: "Memories of Us," "Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round,""The Man from Clover Grove,""Lunch Wagon,""Cheaper to Keep Her," and "Dick and Jane."
When situation comedy began to emerge on television, Rose Marie was there. She created running roles on "The Bob Cummings show," "My Sister Eileeen," "The Doris Day Show," and "S.W.A.T.," not to mention her own series, "Honeymoon Suite;" but it is for her co-starring role, for five years, portraying the first ‘woman in a man’s world’ - the independent, frank talking Sally Rogers, in the classic comedy, "The Dick Van Dyke Show, that Rose Marie is most remembered and for which she was nominated for three Emmys. Variety television shows of course became a natural for the comedienne-vocalist, with numerous appearances with Jackie Gleason, Jimmy Durante, Milton Berle, Red Skelton, Garry Moore, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Dinah Shore, George Gobel, Dean Martin, Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas, and Johnny Carson. Her game show appearances read like a history of that T.V. format. From "Password," "PDQ," "I’ve Got A Secret," To Tell the Truth," "What’s My Line?", and"Pyramid," to a record fourteen years as a regular on the famed "Hollywood Squares."
This versatile lady has received high praise for her many dramatic roles on such programs as "Kojak," "Petrocelli," "The Virginian," "Gunsmoke," "Adam 12," "Chips," and "Love Boat;" portraying a variety of ladies from wealthy, loud Texans, prostitutes, barmaids, food vendors, frontier settlers to sweet nuns. You name it, and Rose Marie has probably done it!
Most recently Rose Marie has returned to the night-club-concert hall circuit across the country appearing in the highly successful review "4 Girls 4"in which she starred with Rosemary Clooney, Helen O’Connell, and Margaret Whiting (and then Kay Starr). Rose Marie’s comedic delivery and husky vocals have brought new accolades from both old fans and the newer generations who were not aware that their favorite television performer was also a great "variety artist" and one of the funniest women on the night club-concert hall stage today. Television is still her main love, and a new series for our funny lady is in the works, as well as a Broadway musical being written especially for her and her very unique talents.
In private life, Rose Marie, whose roles have usually portrayed her as looking for a husband, was very much married, for twenty years to the late Bobby Guy, a first trumpeter for NBC’s Orchestra. Unmarried since his passing, Rose Marie raised their daughter, Georgiana, now a married lady and independent television producer, as well as a champion horsewoman. Rose Marie still lives in the same home she and Bobby moved into over 30 years ago, in the San Fernando Valley, California. She is a celebrated Italian cook, a collector of plates, and a tireless defender of numerous humanitarian causes -- notably cruelty to animals. Her charitable organizations, to which Rose Marie devotes as much time as possible, include Crippled Children, Variety Club, and the Leukemia Society.