Florence Henderson, Upbeat Mom of ‘The Brady Bunch,’ Dies at 82
By ANITA GATES | NOV. 25, 2016
Florence Henderson, who began her career as an ingénue soprano in stage musicals in the 1950s but made a more lasting impression on television as the perky 1970s sitcom mom on “The Brady Bunch,” died on Thursday in Los Angeles. She was 82.
Her death was confirmed by David Brokaw, her publicist. He said that she died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and that her family said the cause was heart failure.
“She was quite active until she started not feeling well several days ago,” Mr. Brokaw said. “It was felt that she would just bounce back from it.”
Ms. Henderson was making a film in Norway in 1969 when she was asked to appear in the pilot episode of “The Brady Bunch,” an unapologetically upbeat comedy about a woman with three daughters who meets, marries and makes a sunny suburban California home with a widower who has three sons.
The cast of “The Brady Bunch,” with the six children who called
Florence Henderson’s character, Carol, Mom. Top row, from left:
Christopher Knight, Barry Williams and Ann B. Davis; middle row:
Eve Plumb, Ms. Henderson, Robert Reed and Maureen McCormick;
bottom row: Susan Olsen and Mike Lookinland.
Credit ABC Photo Archives, via Getty Images
The series ran from September 1969 to March 1974, attracting viewers during a period of extreme social change and the Vietnam War, neither of which touched the Bradys’ world.
The show took on new life in syndication. In the end, it spawned television movies and reunion specials, short-lived spinoffs (including “The Brady Bunch Variety Hour” in the mid-’70s) and eventually two feature films.
Ms. Henderson defended the original television show from its detractors, who ridiculed it for its simplistic, impossibly wholesome plots and its idealized portrait of family life. “It was really a show that was seen through the eyes of a child,” she said, “and it was supposed to have a little soft glow about it.”
Ms. Henderson with Noël Coward at the piano in a rehearsal photo of “The Girl Who Came to Supper.”
Jose Ferrer is center left, with Herman Levin, a producer. Credit Associated Press
The question of whether Carol Brady was widowed or divorced was never definitively established on the television show. In “A Very Brady Sequel” (1996), the second of the two movies based on the show, a character (who turns out to be an impostor) claims to be her long-lost husband, who was thought to have died at sea.
Ms. Henderson pretended to clear up the mystery in a 2015 interview. “I killed my husband,” she announced. “I was the original Black Widow. Nobody ever said, but I always say I just got rid of him.”
Before the series, Ms. Henderson had built an impressive reputation with stage work. She starred in “Fanny” on Broadway in the mid-1950s, when she was in her early 20s; “The King and I” at the Los Angeles Music Center; “South Pacific” at Lincoln Center; national tours of “Oklahoma!” and “The Sound of Music”; and “The Girl Who Came to Supper” (1963), Noël Coward’s last original Broadway musical.
Theater roles led her to television in its early days, mostly as a singer. In the 1950s and ’60s she appeared on music-driven series like “The Bell Telephone Hour,” “Oldsmobile Music Theater” and “The Dean Martin Show.” She also appeared on a 1958 audience participation series, “Sing Along,” and game shows like “The Match Game” and “Password.”
She was a frequent guest on “The Tonight Show” during both Jack Paar’s and Johnny Carson’s eras as host. And in 1962, after Paar left and before Carson arrived, she became the first woman to be the show’s guest host.
Full Story