Actress Marie Lillo dies at 81

LELAND, Miss. - Actress Marie Lillo, who sang opera and performed in musical comedies and on television during her 60-year career, has died. She was 81.

Lillo's niece, Connie Lillo Thieman, said Friday that Lillo died of cancer Feb. 1 in Los Angeles.

Lillo toured with Milton Berle as a member of a classical quartet who sang while he performed and she won a 1998-99 Drama League Award for Joe DiPietro's hit "Over the River and Through the Woods."

Lillo's niece says Lillo's career started in opera. Later roles included an old hunchback psychic nun in the NBC series "Passions" and a part in David Merrick's "42nd Street."

"She was just a life force," DiPietro said. When he adapted "Babes in Arms" in 2002, he added the role of the world's oldest living chorus girl. "We needed someone who could sing and do comedy and was a real sort-of broad," he said. At the first rehearsal, DiPietro said, Lillo belted out "The Lady is a Tramp" and the rest of the cast stopped to give her a standing ovation.