SIGNED AUTOGRAPHED PHOTO

In 1955, while dancing in the chorus in the Sammy Davis, Jr. show Mr. Wonderful, Kert was recommended by his fellow dancer and friend Chita Rivera, who eventually won the role of Anita in West Side Story, to audition as a dancer for Gangway during the earliest Broadway pre-production of the Arthur Laurents-Leonard Bernstein-Stephen Sondheim musical later titled West Side Story, an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet set on the west side of mid-town Manhattan in the 1950s. Kert was the 18th out of 150 hopefuls to audition, but was the first one to be cut. A few months later, while he was working for Esquire in an advertising show, Stephen Sondheim approached him after seeing him perform and set up an audition for the part of Tony. Kert was reluctant to accept the offer, but a few weeks later, he was informed that he had the role.

According to Arthur Laurents, who wrote the book for West Side Story, Kert was "a California extrovert, laughing, bubbling, deadly funny, and openly gay." Director-choreographer Jerome Robbins frequently clashed with Kert, publicly chastising him for being gay, despite the fact that Robbins himself, fellow dancer Tommy Abbott, and most of the creative team were gay. Kert did not repeat his role in the 1961 film version of the show because at 30 years old he could not have believably played a teenager. The role went to former child actor Richard Beymer, whose vocals were dubbed by Jimmy Bryant. Kert was upset at being passed over for the role, because he had hoped that it would jump-start his film career.

Success and struggles

Kert's later career had only occasional high points. A Family Affair limped along for three months in early 1962. He was a member of the cast of the infamous ill-fated musical version of Truman Capote's novella, Breakfast at Tiffany's, which closed during previews in December 1966. His next project, La Strada (1969), starring Bernadette Peters, closed on opening night. He often worked in Off-Broadway, theatre workshops, and taught dance. However, replacing the original actor who fell ill, he played the male lead Cliff in the first run of Cabaret for most of its run.

His next big break came as a replacement for Dean Jones as the lead in Stephen Sondheim's Company (1970). Soon after opening night, director Harold Prince released Jones from his contract and substituted Kert. The Tony Awards nominating committee allowed him to compete in the category of Best Actor in a Musical, though the rules normally restricted nominations to the performer who originated a role. The original cast album of Company had already been recorded before Kert joined the first cast. When the cast traveled to London to reprise their roles, Columbia Records recorded new tracks with Kert to substitute for those Jones had recorded. This recording with Kert was released as the Original London Cast recording. In 1998, when Sony Music, which had acquired the Columbia catalog, released a new digital version of the original Broadway cast recording, Kert's rendition of "Being Alive", the show's final number, was included as a bonus track.

In 1977, he won the role of Liza Minnelli's leading man in "Happy Endings", a movie within the movie New York, New York. Kert hoped that his role as the producer, though small, would be his great movie breakthrough. But before New York, New York opened, United Artists, the distributor, insisted that it was too long and persuaded director Martin Scorsese to drop most of the 11-minute "Happy Endings" sequence from the final version, including all of Kert's scenes. In 1981, New York, New York was re-released with "Happy Endings" intact and Kert's role restored.

In 1975, he appeared in A Musical Jubilee, a revue that lasted barely three months. Rags (1986) closed two days after it opened. In his final show, Legs Diamond (1988), he was a standby for star Peter Allen. One of Kert's last recordings was the 1987 2-CD studio cast album of the complete scores of two George and Ira Gershwin musicals: Of Thee I Sing and its sequel Let 'Em Eat Cake. This was the first time these scores had been recorded in their entirety.

Kert made brief appearances in the feature films Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) and New York, New York (1977). His television credits included guest appearances on The Sorcerer's Apprentice (Alfred Hitchcock Presents), Kraft Suspense Theatre, The Bell Telephone Hour, Combat! (Season 4 episode “One At A Time”, aired 1966), Hawaii Five-O, Kojak: Conspiracy of Fear (1973), and Love, American Style. He also appeared several times on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

Heckart — am Oscar and Emmy winner, began her Broadway career as the assistant stage manager and an understudy for The Voice of the Turtle in 1943. Her many credits include Picnic, The Bad Seed, A View from the Bridge, A Memory of Two Mondays, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, A Family Affair, And Things That Go Bump in the Night, Barefoot in the Park, Butterflies Are Free, You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running, and The Cemetery Club.

Heckart won the 1953 Theatre World Award for Picnic. Her nominations include Tony Award nominations for Butterflies Are Free, Invitation to a March, and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs.

In 2000, at age 81, she appeared off-Broadway in Kenneth Lonergan's The Waverly Gallery. For this performance, she won several awards, including the Drama Desk Award, the Lucille Lortel Award, the Drama League Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award. That same year, she was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame and received an honorary Tony Award for lifetime achievement.

She was granted three honorary doctorates by Sacred Heart University, Niagara University, and Ohio State University.

Film and television

Heckart won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in the 1972 movie adaptation of Butterflies Are Free and was nominated in 1956 for her performance as the bereaved, besotted Mrs. Daigle in The Bad Seed (1956), both of which were roles Heckart originated on Broadway. Heckart appeared in The Hiding Place (1976) as a nurse working inside the concentration camp. In 1977, Heckart played Bertha Hayden, mother of Sam Hayden in NBC's made for TV Christmas movie, "Sunshine Christmas". She later appeared as a Vietnam War widow in the Clint Eastwood film Heartbreak Ridge (1986). She played Diane Keaton's meddling mother in the 1996 comedy film The First Wives Club.

On television, Heckart had starring roles in The Five Mrs. Buchanans, Out of the Blue, Partners in Crime, and Backstairs at the White House (Emmy nomination as Eleanor Roosevelt). In 1994, she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her appearance as Rose Stein on Love & War. In 1988, she appeared as Ruth in the Tales from the Darkside episode "Do Not Open This Box". Her other guest roles included The Fugitive (where she appeared in three episodes as a nun, "Sister Veronica"), The Mary Tyler Moore Show (two Emmy nominations as journalist Flo Meredith, a role she carried over to a guest appearance on MTM's spinoff Lou Grant), Love Story, Rhoda, Alice, Murder One, Hawaii Five-O, Gunsmoke, Cybill, The Cosby Show (one Emmy nomination as Mrs. Hickson), and many others.

She appeared on two episodes of Gunsmoke. In 1965, Heckart appeared as Hattie Silks on the episode "The Lady." In 1969, Heckart appeared as Athena Partridge Royce on the episode "The Innocent".

Heckart played two unrelated characters on the daytime soap opera One Life to Live. During the 1980s, she played Ruth Perkins, the mother of Allison Perkins, who had kidnapped the newborn baby of heroine Viki Lord Buchanan under orders from phony evangelist and mastermind criminal Mitch Laurence. During the early 1990s, she played the role of Wilma Bern, mother of upstate Pennsylvania mob boss Carlo Hesser and his meek twin, Mortimer Bern. She appeared in the 1954 legal drama Justice, based on case files of New York's Legal Aid Society.  She appeared in an episode of the medical drama The Eleventh Hour, titled "There Should Be an Outfit Called 'Families Anonymous!'" (1963), and an episode of Home Improvement, titled "Losing My Religion". She also played the role of Amanda Cooper on the Little House on the Prairie episode "Dance With Me".

Heckart has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6162 Hollywood Blvd.

Filmography

Films

Year Title Role

1956 Miracle in the Rain Grace Ullman

1956 Somebody Up There Likes Me Ma Barbella

1956 Bus Stop Vera

1956 The Bad Seed Hortense Daigle

1958 Hot Spell Alma's Friend

1960 Heller in Pink Tights Mrs. Hathaway

1963 My Six Loves Ethel

1967 Up the Down Staircase Henrietta 

1968 No Way to Treat a Lady Mrs. Brummel

1969 The Tree Sally Dunning

1972 Butterflies Are Free Mrs. Florence Baker

1974 Zandy's Bride Ma Allan

1975 The Hiding Place Katje

1976 Burnt Offerings Roz Allardyce

1983 Trauma Center Amy Decker R.N.

1986 Seize the Day Funeral Woman No. 1

1986 Heartbreak Ridge Little Mary Jackson

1994 The 5 Mrs. Buchanans Emma Buchanan

1994 Ultimate Betrayal Sarah McNeil

1996 The First Wives Club Catherine 

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