Barbara McNair Dies at 72

Barbara McNair, who played Babe Williams in the interracial 1973 Broadway revival of The Pajama Game, died in Los Angeles on February 4 from throat cancer. She was 72.

The Wisconsin-born entertainer made her Broadway debut in 1958 in the Jerry Bock-Sheldon Harnick musical The Body Beautiful. In 1962, she replaced Diahann Caroll in the Richard Rodgers musical No Strings. Her final Broadway appearance was in The Pajama Game, in which she starred opposite Hal Linden. The production ran only 65 performances.

McNair also worked in Hollywood for over 30 years, co-starring in the movies They Call Me Mister Tibbs, The Organization (both opposite Sidney Poitier), and Change of Habit (with Elvis Presley and Mary Tyler Moore).

From 1969 to 1971, she hosted her own TV variety series, The Barbara McNair Show. She was also a popular recording artist in the 1950s and 1960s; her hits included “Bobby” and “You Could Never Love Him.”