Nancy Walker (May 10, 1922 – March 25, 1992) was an American actress of stage, screen, and television. She also was a director of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, in which she was a co-star.
Born Anna Myrtle Swoyer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, in 1922 (although some sources have cited 1921), she held a life-long feeling of abandonment by her mother, who died while she was an infant. She and her sister, Betty Lou Barto, grew up in large...
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Nancy Walker (May 10, 1922 – March 25, 1992) was an American actress of stage, screen, and television. She also was a director of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, in which she was a co-star.
Born Anna Myrtle Swoyer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, in 1922 (although some sources have cited 1921), she held a life-long feeling of abandonment by her mother, who died while she was an infant. She and her sister, Betty Lou Barto, grew up in large cities where their father, who was a performer, entertained in vaudeville. Walker made her Broadway debut in 1941 in Best Foot Forward. The role provided Walker with her film debut when a movie version, starring Lucille Ball, was filmed in 1943. A subsequent appearance was in the MGM musical Broadway Rhythm, in which she had a featured musical number, "Milkman, Keep Those Bottles Quiet". This song was written especially for her by Leonard Bernstein.
A diminutive four feet, ten inches (1.50 m) tall, Walker was difficult to cast; however,...
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