Equally at home on stage or screen, raspy-voiced character actress and sometime lead Brenda Vaccaro made her first professional appearance as an adolescent in a Dallas, TX production of "The Willow Tree" (1951). After training at NYC's Neighborhood Playhouse (1958-1960), she debuted on Broadway as Gloria Gulock in "Everybody Loves Opal" (1961) and went on to earn three Tony nominations for her efforts in "Cactus Flower" (1965), the musical "How Now, Dow Jones" (1967-68) and "The Goodbye People" (1968-69). She returned to Broadway after an absence of more than a decade to star as Olive Madison