Background
Bruce was born Shirley Levy in Great Neck, New York to Beatrice and Harry Levy.
Bruce was born Shirley Levy in Great Neck, New York to Beatrice and Harry Levy.
Because of her family"s moving, she attended Jamaica High School, Girls" High School, and New Utrecht High School before graduating from Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, New New York Although she studied violin for eight years, she never took singing lessons.
She had a sister, Marilyn. Bruce made her Broadway debut in Louisiana Purchase, with songs by Irving Berlin who discovered her at a nightclub in Newark, New Jersey. She was the first actress to play the role of Julie in a Broadway production of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II"s Show Boat since the 1932 Broadway revival.
Bruce played the role onstage in 1946 and garnered favorable comparisons to Helen Morgan, who had originated the role onstage in 1927 and repeated it in both the 1932 revival and the 1936 film.
Her other Broadway credits include New Priorities of 1943, Along Fifth Avenue, Do I Hear a Waltz?, Henry, Sweet Henry, and A Family Affair. She sang on Carton of Pleasure and The Henny Youngman Show.
Bruce died from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at the Motion Picture & Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, aged 87.