Background
Her father was English, and her mother was Swiss-Italian.
Her father was English, and her mother was Swiss-Italian.
She attended finishing school in Geneva and lived in London where she worked as a dancer before returning to the States.
Born Benvenuta Rose Crooke in San Francisco, Venuta was a graduate of Hollywood High School. Venuta made her Broadway debut when she replaced Ethel Merman in the lead role of Reno Sweeney in Cole Porter"s Anything Goes in 1935. The two remained close friends and co-starred in a revival of Annie Get Your Gun in 1966.
Additional Broadway credits included By Jupiter (1942), Hazel Flagg (1953), and Romantic Comedy (1979).
Venuta"s summer stock and regional theatre credits included A Little Night Music, Business Stop, Gypsy, Come Blow Your Horn, Auntie Mame, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, Little Maine, and Pal Joey. Venuta"s Benay Venuta Hour "was a popular Columbia Broadcasting System radio program" She was a vocalist on such shows as Freddie Rich"s Penthouse Party, Duffy"s Tavern and Take a Note.
Several sources have given her birthdate as January 27, 1911. In her obituary, The New York times gave her birthdate as 1911, indicating she died at age 84.
However, both the California Birth Index and the United States Census show her birth at 1910, which would make her 85 at death.