Nancy Walker: (speaking to her husband after their delayed 40th wedding anniversary party) Now I can go in peace. This was the last dream of my life come true.
Nancy worked on the FOX show True Colors until very close to her death. Her "TV daughter" Valerie Harper (who played Rhoda Morgenstern) was quoted as saying, "I love the fact that she went out like she came in...with greasepaint on."
Not only did Nancy Walker star in two series canceled in one television season (The Nancy Walker Show - Fall 1976 and Blansky's Beauties - Winter/Spring 1977), but these shows were backed by two of TV's most successful producers of the time, Norman Lear and Garry Marshall.
Nancy and her sister Betty Lou Barto both aspired to be singers and were raised in show business by their father, vaudeville performer Dewey Barto (born Dewey Smoyer).
Nancy Walker's career as a performer may have been accidentally helped because play director George Abbott confused her with the actress Helen Walker who he had worked with previously.
Sources indicate that Nancy Walker suffered from depression and insecurity, problems that forced her to seek professional therapy.
Walker's work as director for the "Village People" movie Can't Stop the Music (1980) earned her the dubious distinction of being nominated for a Razzie Award for "Worst Director." Although an artistic and commercial failure, the movie has since attained a cult status with some fans.
Nancy's "Rosie the Waitress" commercials for paper towels earned her a total of about $250,000 in the 1970s and 1980s.
Walker's professional acting debut was in 1941, in the Broadway production Best Foot Forward (she later starred in the movie version as well).
You can share a link to this page with your friend!