Sheila Sullivan

{{Short description|American actress (born 1937)}}

Sheila Rae Sullivan (born August 1, 1937 in Renton, Washington) is a Broadway actress{{Cite magazine |last=Little |first=Stewart W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=itkCAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22sheila+sullivan%22&pg=PA59 |title=Onstage 1969 |magazine=New York |date=1969-01-20 |language=en}} and singer.{{Citation |title=Sheila Sullivan – Nobody's Heart (Belongs to Me) | date=29 June 2018 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoLFzAtJMKA |access-date=2023-06-30 |language=en}}

File:Sheila Sullivan.JPG

In 1957, Sullivan was a Tropicana girl at the Tropicana Hotel and Casino then run by mobster Johnny Roselli.{{Cite book |last1=Rappleye |first1=Charles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lIXyAAAAMAAJ |title=All American Mafioso: The Johnny Rosselli Story |last2=Becker |first2=Ed |date=1991 |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=978-0-385-26676-5 |language=en}} Sullivan performed as a chorus girl with Eddie Fisher opening night.{{Cite web |date=1957-04-03 |title=$15 Million Tropicana Hotel Opens Today |work=Las Vegas Sun |url=https://lasvegassun.com/news/1957/apr/03/15-million-tropicana-hotel-opens-today/ |access-date=2023-06-30 |language=en}} In 1958 she wrote a letter to the head of publicity at Convair, Ned Root,{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cT0PAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22ned+root%22+convair&pg=PA97 |title=Air Corps News Letter |date=1957 |language=en}} and volunteered to man history's first spaceship. Instead of sending her to the moon, like she wanted, Ned Root made her his wife.

In 1964, Sullivan was the understudy for Paula Wayne in Golden Boy with Sammy Davis Jr.{{Cite web |title=Sheila Sullivan – Broadway Cast & Staff |publisher=IBDB |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/sheila-sullivan-93653 |access-date=2023-06-26}} The Tony-winning musical included Broadway's first interracial kiss.{{Cite web |date=2018-11-12 |title=Paula Wayne Death ~ Remembering Paula Wayne {{!}} Blog |publisher=PBS |url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/blog/paul-wayne-death-remembering-paula-wayne/ |access-date=2023-06-30 |website=American Masters |language=en-US}} The billboard outside the Majestic Theater{{Cite web |title=Majestic Theatre {{!}} Shubert Organization |url=https://shubert.nyc/theatres/majestic/ |access-date=2023-06-30 |website=shubert.nyc}} featuring Davis (a Black man) and Wayne (a white woman) was riddled with bullets because of it.{{Cite book |last=Haygood |first=Wil |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sfPsDwAAQBAJ |title=In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr. |date=2020-05-12 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-8041-7251-6 |pages=351 |language=en}} On March 25, 1965, Sullivan arrived in Montgomery, Alabama{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sfPsDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22sheila+sullivan%22%C2%A0&pg=PA365 | isbn=9780804172516 | title=In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr | date=12 May 2020 | publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing }} with her cast members in an effort to support Martin Luther King Jr.{{Cite web |title=The Nobel Peace Prize 1964 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1964/king/biographical/ |access-date=2023-06-30 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}} for the third March to Montgomery.{{Cite web |title=Selma to Montgomery: 50 Years Later |url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/node/324821 |access-date=2023-06-30 |website=The White House |language=en}} After two days of extreme weather conditions,{{Cite web |last=Puleo |first=Mark |date=January 13, 2023 |title='Nevertheless, the marcher went on': How weather played a constant role in the civil rights movement |url=https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/nevertheless-the-marcher-went-on-how-weather-played-a-constant-role-in-the-civil-rights-movement/665539 |website=accuweather.com}} no sleep, and tumult, Sullivan was still wearing heels when she marched over the Edmund Pettus Bridge.{{Cite book |last=Haygood |first=Wil |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sfPsDwAAQBAJ&q=sammy+davis |title=In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr. |date=2020-05-12 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-8041-7251-6 |language=en}} The next day, Golden Boy{{'}}s leading lady, Wayne, called in sick for the first time. Sullivan's Broadway debut{{Cite web |last=Katie |date=2023-06-30 |title=The Debut Of An Actor Musician Or Other Performer On Broadway |url=https://brightstarmusical.com/the-debut-of-an-actor-musician-or-other-performer-on-broadway/ |access-date=2023-06-30 |website=brightstarmusical.com |language=en-US}} was as Wayne's replacement for the lead's love interest Lorna Moon, mere hours after her participation in the Selma march.{{Cite web |title=Golden Boy – Broadway Musical – Original |publisher=IBDB |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/golden-boy-3220 |access-date=2023-06-30}}

The producer of Golden Boy, Hilly Elkins,{{Cite news |last=Grimes |first=William |date=2010-12-07 |title=Hillard Elkins, Producer, Is Dead at 81 |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/theater/07elkins.html |access-date=2023-06-30 |issn=0362-4331}} was dating Sullivan.{{Cite book |last1=Leiber |first1=Jerry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IR2x3rQllXkC&q=sullivan |title=Hound Dog: The Leiber & Stoller Autobiography |last2=Stoller |first2=Mike |date=June 2010 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-4165-5939-9 |language=en}} One night Elkins stormed into the apartment Sullivan shared with Corky Hale, violently attacked Sullivan banging her head into the floor.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5tZqDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22sheila+sullivan%22%C2%A0&pg=PA70 | isbn=9781480988910 | title=Corky Hale UNCORKED! | date=August 2018 | publisher=Dorrance }}{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5tZqDwAAQBAJ&q=corky+hale+uncorked |title=Corky Hale: Uncorked!|date=August 2018 |publisher=Dorrance |isbn=9781480988910 }} It was her neighbor Gloria Steinem who called the police and saved Sullivan's life.

Sullivan's second husband was actor Robert Culp. She appeared with her husband in several films including Hickey & Boggs (1972), A Name For Evil (1973), Houston, We've Got a Problem (1974) and Give Me Liberty (1974).

In April 2023, living in her small Upper West Side one-room apartment for more than 40 years, Sullivan was served eviction papers. With the help of her neighbor, journalist Tina Dupuy, the problem was found, stopping the eviction: a city agency that had been subsidizing her rent, for which she still qualified, had stopped paying its share after a request for the current status had been lost and not satisfied.{{Cite news |last=Wilson |first=Michael |date=2023-07-12 |title=The Glamorous Stranger Next Door Knew Everyone. And She Needed Help. |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/12/nyregion/nyc-eviction-tina-dupuy-sheila-sullivan.html |access-date=2023-11-01 |issn=0362-4331}}