Lu Leonard

Singer/comedy actress Lu Leonard was a plus-sized talent, especially notable in offbeat comedy, who took advantage of her plus-sized girth to create some memorable and formidable characters on stage, film and TV. She would go on to play atmospheric roles from wardens, waitresses and clerks to nuns, nannies and sperm bank nurses! Born Mary Lou Price in Long Beach, California on June 5, 1926, to vaudevillian parents, Lu, as she was called almost from birth, went on the road with her mom and dad as an infant. Named after her father's sister Lulu, her actress/mother, Amy Goodrich died in July of 1939, when Lou was only 13. Her actor/comedian father, "Happy" Hal Price, settled comfortably into Hollywood movies as a character player, finding hundreds of small roles in Republic and Monogram westerns. As a young singer and entertainer, Lu stuck with show business into adulthood. A short-lived marriage to another actor gave her the impetus to switch her stage moniker to "Lu Leonard", keeping the name even after their divorce. She eventually spent two decades in New York and brightened up Broadway. She made her musical Broadway debut as a Mrs. Peacham replacement in "The Threepenny Opera" and continued with "The Happiest Girl in the World" (1961), "The Gay Life" (1961), "Bravo Giovanni" (1962) and "Drat! The Cat" (1965). She also toured in such musical shows as "The Pajama Game," "Plain and Fancy," "The Music Man," "Oliver!" and "Man of La Mancha." On-camera performances began in the early 1950's with appearances on such programs as "My Little Margie," "The Life of Riley," "The Red Skelton Hour" and "December Bride," along with a bit part in the bucolic comedy film The Kettles in the Ozarks (1956). She also played the wife of Larry in The Three Stooges comedy short Husbands Beware (1956). The following decades led to frequent TV work in both the comedic and dramatic vein -- "Route 66," "Car 54, Where Are You?," "The Patty Duke Show," "The San Pedro Beach Bums," "Police Woman" and "Mork & Mindy." In 1976, Lu returned to Broadway in a production of "Something's Afoot" as a standby. Lu eventually settled back in the Southern California area after much touring. As the years went on, Hollywood played off of Lu's harsh-looking features and large girth. A good sport despite the fact that the parts were usually minor and the lowbrow laughs often came at her own expense, she was a lively, cheerful and fun-loving presence offstage -- in marked contrast to her somewhat imposing character typecast. There were ups-and-downs and some lean years, but she made the most of whatever roles she was given. In the 1980s, Lu was handed a recurring role as William Conrad's wry, wise-cracking secretary in Jake and the Fatman (1987). TV guest parts, primarily comedy, included "Laverne & Shirley," "Buffalo Bill", "The Fall Guy," "Knight Rider," "Cagney & Lacey," "Night Court," "Webster," "Married...with Children." On the larger screen, she played the small part of the Warbuck cook, Mrs. Pugh, in the musical film Annie (1982), and went on to play a greasy spoon waitress in Starman (1984), a nurse in Micki + Maude (1984), Mrs. Whitehead in Stand Alone (1985) and Miss Frigget in You Can't Hurry Love (1988). Lu's strongest fan base came from her offbeat L.A. stage performances. She earned a devoted cult audience for her hatchet-faced prison matron in the 1983 revival of "Women Behind Bars," a campy musical spoof of 1950's women's prison movies also starring Adrienne Barbeau and Sharon Barr. Lu became a steady fixture in a variety of local theater revues, musicals and comedy shows thereafter. The veteran actress moved steadily into 90's films with Circuitry Man (1990), A Climate for Killing (1991), Kuffs (1992), Made in America (1993) and Blank Check (1994). Frequent TV offers also came in with "Growing Pains," "Amen," "Uncle Buck," "Daddy Dearest," "The Nanny" and the revised "Get Smart"). Health problems, including diabetes, eventually took their toll in the mid-1990s, however, and she was forced to retire after filming a part in the movie Man of the Year (1995). Residing primarily in Oregon, Lu eventually needed full care and moved to the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, California, where she spent her remaining years. She died of a heart attack on May 14, 2004 at age 77, and a bench in the Roddy McDowall garden at the Motion Picture Home was dedicated in her memory.