Jo Anne Worley

Jo Anne Worley (b. Lowell, September 6, 1937 - ) – Actress and singer. Lowell-born Anne Worley pursued an acting career following high school graduation in 1955. A few years later – including a two-year stint studying at Midwestern State University in Texas – Worley landed in a production of the musical Wonderful Town in Los Angeles, where she had moved to study acting at Los Angeles City College. Her first big break came in 1961, when she made it to Broadway with a cast that was performing the musical revue Billy Barnes People. Three years later, she appeared as a stand-in for the original Broadway production of Hello Dolly! While she performing in a Greenwich Village night club act in 1966, another big break came her way in the form of audience member Merv Griffin, who hired Worley to appear on his show. As a featured guest entertainer, Worley made over 200 appearances on the Merv Griffin Show and then achieved greater fame through her tenure with Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In from 1968 to 1970. Throughout the 1970s, she appeared on numerous televisions shows including Love, American Style, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, The Andy Williams Show, $10, 000 Pyramid, Hollywood Squares, and Match Game. Starting with Nutcracker Fantasy (1979), she has done voice work for various animated movies, such as Beauty and the Beast (1991) and a Goofy Movie (1995). Since 1989, Worley has been in several musical productions in Los Angeles and New York. Highlights include playing the Wicked Witch of the West opposite Mickey Rooney in a Hollywood production of The Wizard of Oz (1999) and playing Madame Horrible in a Los Angeles production of Wicked from January 2008 to August 2008.