Nancy Hamilton

Hamilton died in New York City, February 18, 1985, after a long illness.

In 1955, Hamilton won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for Helen Keller in Her Story (1954), becoming the first woman to win that award. The film was restored by the Academy Film Archive in 2006.

In 1945 she spent six months with the American Theater Wing War Players touring the battle areas of France, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands. In the mid-1950s Hamilton produced Helen Keller In Her Story (also known as The Unconquered), a documentary on the life of Helen Keller narrated by Katharine Cornell.

She signed a contract with a film company for 1941 and 1942, and wrote the Broadway stage scores for "One for the Money", "Two for the Show", and "Three to Make Ready".

Songwriter ("How High the Moon", "The Old Soft Shoe"), singer, actress and author, educated at the Sorbonne in Paris and Smith College. She appeared in the Broadway productions "New Faces", "Pride and Prejudice", "One for the Money", and "The Barretts of Wimpole Street", wrote the play "Food for Scandal", and wrote special material for Beatrice Lillie between 1934 and 1936.

After a period of amateur acting and producing in Pittsburgh and Montclair, New Jersey, she moved to New York City in 1932 and leased a large apartment with an assortment of women friends. For a short time she worked for Stern's Department Store and then for RKO Pictures as a spy checking audience reactions and reporting on vaudeville acts.

She went on to write lyrics for three successful Broadway revues (a genre of musical theater that flourished in the 1930s): One for The Money (1939) ran for 132 performances, Two for the Show (1940) ran for 124 performances, and Three to Make Ready (1946) ran for 323 performances. These revues launched the careers of Alfred Drake, Keenan Wynn, Gene Kelley, Betty Hutton, Eve Arden, and Ray Bolger.

Nancy Hamilton (July 27, 1908 - February 18, 1985) was an American actress, playwright, lyricist, director and producer.