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Mimi Hines
Mimi Hines
	Publicity photo of Hines and Phil Ford
Born	Shirley Saborne; July 17, 1933; Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Died	October 21, 2024 (aged 91); Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.
Occupations	Actress; singer; comedian;
Spouse	Phil Ford (m. 1954; div. 1972)

Mimi Hines (July 17, 1933 – October 21, 2024) was a Canadian actress, singer, and comedian, best known for her appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show and her work on Broadway. She succeeded Barbra Streisand in the original production of Funny Girl.

Life and career

Hines was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on July 17, 1933, the daughter of Eugene Saborne and Lillian Hines. Her parents split when she was young, and she used her mother's surname.^[1] She worked for a time in Anchorage, Alaska, where she met comedian Phil Ford in 1952 while they were working at different night clubs. They married in 1954 and divorced in 1972.^[2] On August 28, 1958, she and Ford appeared on The Tonight Show for the first time. Hines sang "Till There Was You".^[3] In a later stand-up routine on The Tonight Show, she portrayed the NBC peacock. In 1959 she sang several of the numbers on the Juan García Esquivel-Ray Martin Christmas song collaboration, The Merriest of Christmas Pops (RCA Victor).

In 1964, Hines and Ford filmed a pilot episode for a potential sitcom, Mimi, that would have starred the two as owners of a resort hotel, but the series was not picked up for airing.^[4]

In 1965, she and Phil Ford starred in the obscure comedy "Saturday Night Bath In Apple Valley", which was long-forgotten until Something Weird Video unearthed it and issued it on homevideo for the first time. It was directed by actor John Myhers and also starred Cliff Arquette and Joan Benedict (later 'Steiger' -- who also died earlier this year at age 96; Myhers and Benedict were married until he died in 1992).

In 1966, Hines succeeded Barbra Streisand on Broadway in Funny Girl,^[5] performing the role for eighteen months, after which she starred in touring companies of I Do! I Do! and The Prisoner of Second Avenue, as well as productions of Anything Goes, Never Too Late, The Pajama Game, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, No, No, Nanette and Sugar.^{[citation needed]}

She played at Feinstein's at the Regency in New York City. She appeared with the Los Angeles Pops Orchestra and starred in national tours of Sugar Babies and Nite Club Confidential and on a recorded salute to Johnny Mercer called Mostly Mercer.^{[citation needed]}

She toured the world for a year in the title role of Hello, Dolly! and starred in productions of A Majority of One and Can-Can in Florida and in revues featuring the songs of Alan and Marilyn Bergman, How Do You Keep the Music Playing? in Los Angeles, as well as the songs of Rodgers and Hart titled This Funny World at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and the songs of Jerry Herman at the Schoenberg Theatre in Los Angeles, California.^[3]

Hines appeared as Mrs. Latimer on the television program Frasier and returned to Broadway in 1994 for the Tommy Tune production of Grease, in which she appeared as Miss Lynch.^[3]

She also co-starred in the off-Broadway revival of Kander and Ebb's 70, Girls, 70, with Jane Powell, Charlotte Rae and Helen Gallagher, and was a guest in the final week of The Rosie O'Donnell Show. She performed for L.A.'s reprise, as Letitia Primrose in On The Twentieth Century, and in 2005 as Berthe in Pippin.^[6]

She co-starred in 2002 as Sister Mary Amnesia in the National Tour of the 20th Anniversary production of Nunsense, along with Kaye Ballard, Georgia Engel, Lee Meriwether, and Darlene Love.^[7] In 2007, Hines starred in the City Center Encores! production of Follies i New York City.^[8]

Hines died in her Las Vegas home on October 21, 2024, at the age of 91 from natural causes. A celebration of Mimi’s life, career, and marriage will be held to coincide with the ceremony to unveil Hines and Ford's Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars.^[9]