Sally Ann Howes (born 20 July 1930) is an English actress and singer, who currently holds dual British-American citizenship. Her career on stage, screen and television has spanned over six decades. She is best known for the role of Truly Scrumptious in the 1968 musical film, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical in 1963 for her performance in Brigadoon.
"My actual debut [on Broadway in "My Fair Lady", 1958] was probably the most exciting day of my life, professionally. I was scheduled to open on a Monday, and Moss Hart decided that I should have one performance with an audience (one performance - very big of him!) to time the laughs before the critics saw me. So he asked Julie Andrews, who was the last of the original cast left, to give up the Saturday matinée so that I could go on. Moss (Moss Hart) himself made the announcement about the replacement, and the audience groaned and there was pandemonium. You could hear the audience muttering 'Sally Ann Howes? Who is she?' The overture started and the audience was still furious. Fortunately, my father [British comedian Bobby Howes] and some of his friends were out there, and that helped. I had been hailed as a star in the West End, but at the moment I was totally unknown and unwanted. I thought, 'Well, I might as well just relax and enjoy this.' I'm always nervous before a performance, but I felt that I could only be better than their expectations. I didn't want to have to live up to anything. We stopped the show with "The Rain in Spain", and then again with "I Could Have Danced All Night". And the audience fell in love with me, and I with them. I've been in love with American audiences ever since".
2
"I don't think those early years in the business really shape whatever talents a person may possess. It is only when you are old enough to appreciate what you are doing that you begin to learn from each part you play. In fact, I don't really consider that my career started until I was twenty. That was the age I finally did what I really wanted to do. I went into musical comedy".
#
Fact
1
Playing Mrs. Higgins in the Touring Company of My Fair Lady [September 2007]
2
Currently an Artistic Advisor for the Palm Beach Theater Guild. [February 2006]
3
As a thank you at the end of filming Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) she gave wardrobe mistress Wyn Keely a solid gold bracelet charm in the shape of the car.
4
In 1990 she debuted her one-woman show, "From This Moment On", at the Edinburgh Festival and at a benefit for the Long Island AIDS Association at the John Drew Theatre in Easthampton, New York.
5
Adopted the two sons of Richard Adler after the death of his first wife in 1964. Son Christopher Adler was Broadway director and lyricist who died from AIDS in 1984 at age 30. Older son Andrew Hart Adler is an artist who apprenticed under Willem de Kooning.
6
Sister of Peter Howes
7
Often appeared on television and on the musical stage in the 1960s and the 1970s with actors/singers Earl Wrightson and Lois Hunt.
8
Was nominated for Broadway's 1963 Tony Award as best actress (musical) for a revival of Brigadoon.
9
Naturalized U.S. citizen.
10
Replaced Julie Andrews in the Broadway version of My Fair Lady at a higher salary than Andrews.
$20 Million
