Richard Skipper Celebrates Mimi Hines on her 90th Birthday!

Like the Sondheim song says, this trooper is, at age 90, "still here." She was born in Canada in 1933 and grew up with a marvelous knack for making faces and getting laughs. The then-19-year-old met the much older Phil Ford in Alaska while both were playing different clubs in 1952. She was a quick fill-in after his female partner accidentally broke her ankle.

They married two years later and continued performing together in night clubs with Phil serving as the straight man. The plain-Jane, rubber-faced singer/comedienne with the prominent dimples and toothy grin had her customers alternately rolling in the aisles with her "chipmunk" routines and sobbing in their beers with heart-wrenching versions of torch songs. 

From then on Ford and Hines became a hot commodity in niteries, Las Vegas showrooms and on TV variety shows hosted by the likes of Ed Sullivan, Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas, Jimmy Dean and Johnny Carson. In 1965 it all culminated in the role of a lifetime for Mimi when she replaced Barbra Streisand in "Funny Girl" on Broadway in the role of entertainer Fanny Brice. The part of the famed Jewish torch singer/comedienne fit like a glove and Mimi stayed with the show for a healthy 18 months, putting her own indelible stamp on the role.

 She also recorded albums during this peak and went on to appear in acting parts on TV, including "Love, American Style" and, more recently, "Frasier."

 Surviving several personal and professional roadblocks over the past few decades, the indefatigable Mimi continues to headline in nightclubs, music halls and the touring stage, both here and abroad, reuniting on several occasions with Ford (who died in 2005 at age 85). More recent musicals have included "Sugar Babies," "Nite Club Confidential," "Sugar," "Pippin" and "Nunsense."