Janie Sell, a veteran of Broadway musicals who received a Tony Award in 1974 for her spirited turn opposite The Andrews Sisters in the patriotic Over Here!, has died. She was 86.
Sell died June 9 after a brief illness at Englewood Hospital in Englewood, New Jersey, friend and actor James Dybas reported.
The Detroit native also appeared on Broadway alongside Joel Grey in 1968-69’s George M!, opposite Debbie Reynolds in 1973-74’s revival of Irene, with brothers Dick and Tommy Smothers in I Love My Wife in 1978-79, in 1976’s revival of Pal Joey and in 1977’s Happy End with Christopher Lloyd.
In the World War II-set Over Here!, Sell portrayed Mitzi, a Marlene Dietrich-like German spy with a radio transmitter in her lipstick, alongside big band legends Patty and Maxene Andrews (the oldest of the three sisters, LaVerne, died in 1967).
Sell “is quite a knockout in her own right, and she blends very well with The Andrews Sisters, both physically and vocally,” Clive Barnes wrote in his review for The New York Times.
