Nancy Andrews; Had Broadway Starring Roles

Nancy Andrews, a stage actress and singer who moved from Beverly Hills High School and the Pasadena Playhouse to starring roles on Broadway opposite Sid Caesar and John Carradine, has died. She was 68.

Ms. Andrews died Saturday of a heart attack at St. John’s Hospital in Queens, N.Y. She had lived in a nursing home for a year.

The actress won a Theater World Award in 1949 for her Broadway debut in a hit revue “Touch and Go” and later was seen in “Hazel Flagg,” “Plain and Fancy,” “Pipe Dream” and “Juno.”

Ms. Andrews went on to play opposite Caesar in “Little Me” and Carradine in “Tobacco Road.”

Off-Broadway, she played the role of Mrs. Peachum in “Three Penny Opera,” was Julie in Jerome Kern’s “Show Boat,” Mother Grieg in “Song of Norway,” and Aunt Eller in “Oklahoma!” In the award-winning revival of “The Cradle Will Rock,” she played Mrs. Mister, and in “Madame Aphrodite” she played the title role of a corrupt cosmetician.

Nationally she toured in leading roles in such musicals as “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” “Funny Girl,” “Flower Drum Song,” “South Pacific” and “A Little Night Music.”

She also appeared widely on television and in a film, “Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams.”

Ms. Andrews was born in Minneapolis, daughter of a hotel owner and a drama coach. She was educated at Beverly Hills High School, the Pasadena Playhouse and the American Shakespeare Academy.

She is survived by a daughter.