Ellen Hanley Dies at 80

Broadway leading lady Ellen Hanley, who was best known for creating the role of Thea LaGuardia in Fiorello, died of a stroke on Monday in Connecticut. She was 80 years old and had been suffering with cancer.

The Ohio-born Hanley made her Broadway debut as Mary in the original production of Annie Get Your Gun in 1946. The following year, she starred in the musical Barefoot Boy With Cheek, which earned her a Theatre World Award. She also starred in a well-received Off-Broadway revival of The Boys From Syracuse.

Her other Broadway credits included the revue Two’s Company; the short-lived First Impressions, in which she succeeded Polly Bergen in the lead role of Elizabeth Bennett; and the even shorter-lived The Fig Leaves are Falling. Her final Broadway appearance was in the original Broadway production of 1776, in which she succeeded Virginia Vestoff as Abigail Adams.

Hanley was married to actor Ronny Graham from 1951 to 1963, when they divorced. She is survived by her children, Nora and Julian; her sister; Patricia; and her brother, William, author of such plays as Mrs. Dally and Slow Dance on the Killing Ground.