Known for a speaking voice compared to a buzz saw, she made her debut on the New York stage at the Neighborhood Playhouse in May 1955 in
Jonah and the Whale. That same year, she portrayed the title role in the musical
The Amazing Adele, a work which she performed in
tryout performances and on tour, but which ultimately never made it to
Broadway. She made her Broadway stage debut as an understudy for
Kim Stanley in the starring role in
Bus Stop in June 1955. In 1956, she appeared in the
off-Broadway production,
The Littlest Revue, and had the lead role in 1959 in the Broadway production of
Noël Coward's play,
Look After Lulu!, after she was discovered in a nightclub by the playwright. She starred in the 1960
musical comedy The Unsinkable Molly Brown, for which she won a
Tony Award (Best Featured Actress in a Musical, though it was the lead role) for what
The New York Times called her "buoyant" performance as a rough-hewn Colorado social climber. She portrayed the title character, a Western mining millionairess who survived the sinking of the
Titanic. In 1964, she appeared in the episode "The He-She Chemistry" of
Craig Stevens's
CBS drama
Mr. Broadway. She made two appearances on the early '60s TV series
Route 66. On May 16, 1960, Grimes acted and sang as Mehitabel in an abridged version of the musical
Archy and Mehitabel as part of the syndicated TV anthology series
The Play of the Week presented by
David Susskind, and co-written by
Mel Brooks and
Joe Darion. The cast included
Eddie Bracken (who reprised the role in the 1970 animated feature version
Shinbone Alley with
Carol Channing in the Mehitabel role) and
Jules Munshin. Grimes was originally chosen to play the part given to
Elizabeth Montgomery in the hit television situation comedy
Bewitched, but she turned down the offer, preferring to star in
The Tammy Grimes Show. She appeared in the television drama
Route 66 on December 13, 1963, in an episode titled "Come Home Greta Inger Gruenschaffen". In 1964, she appeared on Broadway as Elvira Condomine in
High Spirits, a musical version of Noël Coward's
Blithe Spirit. In 1966, Grimes starred in her own
ABC television series,
The Tammy Grimes Show, in which she played a modern-day heiress who loved to spend money. The series ran for only a month, although an additional six episodes had already been made. Critics described Grimes as a talented performer misused in the series. She played "Mrs. Fred Beery" opposite
Roddy McDowall in a 1979 episode of
The Love Boat. Returning to the Broadway stage in 1969 after almost a decade of performing in what
The New York Times called "dubious delights", Grimes appeared in a revival of Noël Coward's
Private Lives as Amanda, winning the Tony Award for Best Actress.
Clive Barnes in a
New York Times review called her performance "outrageously appealing. She plays every cheap trick in the histrionic book with supreme aplomb and adorable confidence. Her voice moans, purrs, splutters; she gesticulates with her eyes, almost shouts with her hair. She is all
campy, impossible woman, a lovable phony with the hint of tigress about her, so ridiculously artificial that she just has to be for real." Grimes' intermittent film appearances included
Play It as It Lays (1972),
Mr. North (1988) and
High Art (1998). She was a member of the
Stratford Festival of Canada acting company in 1956, and returned again in 1982 to appear as Madame Arcati in
Blithe Spirit. In addition to appearing in a number of television series and motion pictures, Grimes also entertained at various New York City night clubs and recorded several albums of songs. She recited poetry as part of a 1968 solo act in the Persian Room of the
Plaza Hotel. Her voice can be heard in romantic duets on some of
Ben Bagley's anthology albums of Broadway songs on his
Painted Smiles Records label. In 1982, Grimes hosted the final season of the
CBS Radio Mystery Theater replacing
E.G. Marshall who had hosted the show since it premiered in 1974. In 1983, Grimes was dismissed from her co-starring role in the
Neil Simon play
Actors and Actresses, reportedly due to an inability to learn her lines. In 1974, Grimes provided the voice for Albert, the cerebral-minded mouse that does not believe in
Santa Claus, in the animated
Rankin-Bass annual television Christmas special,
Twas the Night Before Christmas; she later worked with Rankin/Bass again for 1982's
The Last Unicorn. In 1980, she starred in the original Broadway production of the musical
42nd Street. In 2003, Grimes was inducted into the
American Theater Hall of Fame. She also appeared in the rotating cast of the off-Broadway staged reading of
Wit & Wisdom. In December 2003, Grimes was invited by the
Noël Coward Society to be the first celebrity to lay flowers on the statue of Sir Noël Coward at the
Gershwin Theatre in Manhattan to celebrate the 104th birthday of "The Master". In 2004, she joined the company of
Tasting Memories, a "compilation of delicious reveries in poetry, song, and prose", with a starry rotating cast including
Kitty Carlisle Hart,
Rosemary Harris,
Philip Bosco,
Joy Franz, and
Kathleen Noone. In 2005, Grimes worked with director Brandon Jameson to voice
UNICEF's multiple award-winning tribute to
Sesame Workshop. Two years later, she returned to the cabaret stage in a critically acclaimed one-woman show. Around this time, she was voted as vice president of the Noël Coward Society. ==Personal life==