Carole Shelley, the Tony Award-winning actress who portrayed one of the Pigeon sisters in the stage, film and television versions of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple, has died. She was 79. Shelley passed away following a battle with cancer at her home in Manhattan on August 31.The actress also was known for originating the role of Crage Hall headmistress Madame Morrible in the Broadway sensation "Wicked" in 2003.
Shelley won her Tony in 1979 for playing Mrs. Kendal, the gracious real-life English actress who befriends John Merrick, in the best play winner "The Elephant Man."
"I've learned a lot in playing her," Shelley, who started out as a comic actress, said in a 1979 interview with The New York Times. "So much of what I've been working toward in the past few years — the effort to achieve stillness, spareness, clarity in my acting — seems to have come together in Mrs. Kendal. She's been quite an extraordinary influence in my life."
Shelley also was nominated for Tonys for her work in "Absurd Person Singular" (1975), "Stepping Out" (1987) and, for playing the bawdy Grandma, in 2009's best musical winner, "Billy Elliot."