Janie Sell, a Broadway actor who won a Tony Award for her joyful performance opposite the Andrews Sisters in 1974’s nostalgic musical Over Here!, died June 9 at Englewood Hospital in Englewood, New Jersey, following a brief illness. She was 86.
Her death was announced by friends including actor James Dybas, who noted that Sell’s family was with her at the time of her passing, and composer Alan Menken.
“Janie Sell was my very first leading lady, in my very first produced musical, God Bless You Mr. Rosewater,” Menken wrote on Facebook. “She was wonderful to work with and beautiful and evocative as the character of Sylvia Rosewater. That was 47 years ago, in 1979; such a magical and exciting time for me and for Howard Ashman. The memory of Janie lives on vividly in my heart.”
Born October 1, 1939, in Detroit, Sell landed her first Broadway role in 1968’s George M!, following that one up in 1973 with roles in Irene.
Her next show, Over Here!, an homage to World War II entertainers that costarred two of just such performers in sisters Maxine and Patty Andrews. The original Broadway cast also included a slew of up-and-comers such as Treat Williams, John Travolta, Phyllis Somerville, Ann Reinking and Marilu Henner. But it was Sell who won the production’s sole Tony Award: She was named Best Featured Actress in a Musical.
Subsequent Broadway credits include Pal Joey (1976); Happy End (1977); and a 1978 replacement turn in I Love My Wife appearing alongside Tom and Dick Smothers, Tom Wopat and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs. Although by the 1990s she had largely retired from acting, she served as a standby and substitute for Carol Burnett in Moon Over Buffalo in 1995.
On television, Sell appeared in, among others, the 1975 TV movie Wives, directed by Jay Sandrich and written by Garry Marshall; an episode of the 1976 series Side By Side; the 1975 movie Lost and Found starring George Segal, Glenda Jackson and Maureen Stapleton; and, in 1984, the TV movie A Good Sport starring Lee Remick and Ralph Waite.
Sell is survived by son Jason Fries, four grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. She was predeceased by husbands Earl Fries and Pat Trese.
