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. 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. On August 28, 1958, she and Ford appeared on
The Tonight Show for the first time. Hines sang "
Till There Was You". 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. 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 home video for the first time. It was directed by actor John Myhers and also starred Cliff Arquette and Joan Benedict. On December 27, 1965, Hines succeeded
Barbra Streisand on Broadway in
Funny Girl, performing the role for eighteen months until the show's New York closing on July 1, 1967, 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. 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. 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. 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. In 2007, Hines starred in the
City Center Encores! production of
Follies in New York City. Hines died in her Las Vegas home on October 21, 2024, at age 91 from natural causes. A celebration of Mimi’s life, career, and marriage was held January 21, 2025, to coincide with the ceremony to unveil Hines and Ford's Star on the
Palm Springs Walk of Stars. ==Discography==