Gloria LeRoy

Gloria Jacqueline LeRoy (November 7, 1925 - May 24, 2018^[1]) was an American character actress. LeRoy had a diverse career, on stage, in film and television. Her film career began after Norman Lear spotted her on stage and cast her in The Night They Raided Minsky's in 1968.

Biography

Best known for playing the voluptuous Mildred "Boom Boom" Turner in the 1970s sitcom All in the Family,^[2] she was born in 1925 to vaudeville performers Loletta and Russell LeRoy in Bucyrus, Ohio. When Gloria was a young girl the family moved to New York where they owned a dance school. Both Gloria and her brother Kenneth studied dance. Ken LeRoy went on to star on Broadway as a dancer and singer and was the first Bernardo in West Side Story. Gloria performed on Broadway in Artists and Models^[3][4] with Jackie Gleason in 1943 at age 17 as a Specialty Dancer.^[5][6] Her early career started in night clubs as a dancer and singer for Barbara Walters' father, impresario Lou Walters, at the Latin Quarter. Later headlining Nouvelle Eve, a Parisian cabaret show import, at the Hotel El Rancho Vegas from 1951-52.^[7][8]

She was cast in a production of Hello, Dolly! (1964) as Ernestina Money, but replaced by Mary Jo Catlett.^[9] She toured with Ann Corio's This Was Burlesque^{[10][11][12][13][14]} as a tassel-twirler^{[15][16][17][18][11][19][20][21][22]}

She appeared in George M : A New Musical.^[23][11] She appeared on The Mike Douglas Show in 1963. She had recurring roles on the soaps Days of Our Lives as Queenie (1989), The Young and the Restless as Beatrice Tucker (1998) and Passions as Ruth (2000). She appeared in Three's Company as Nancy in episode "The Goodbye Guy" (1980), as well as on Married... with Children as Chesty LaRue in episode "Live Nude Peg" (1997). In 2001, she appeared in season 8 episode 23 of Frasier entitled "A Day in May" as Mrs. Smolenski, a prospective house buyer. In 2007, LeRoy appeared in the "Pilot" of Rules of Engagement. In 2009, she appeared in Season 5 of Desperate Housewives as Rose Kemper. In 2010, she appeared in Shameless as Aunt Ginger.

Filmography

Television

References

External links

• Gloria LeRoy on IMDb