Mimi Hines Dies: Nightclub Headliner Who Replaced Barbra Streisand In Broadway’s ‘Funny Girl’ Was 91

Mimi Hines, who along with her comedy and musical partner (and husband) Phil Ford was a staple of late-night talk shows and variety shows of the 1960s before making a name for herself on Broadway as the replacement for Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl, died peacefully of natural causes on Monday, Oct. 21, at her home in Las Vegas. She was 91.

Her death was announced by her longtime attorney Mark Sendroff.

Born July 17, 1933, in Canada, the singer and comedian Hines met Ford in 1952 at the Last Chance Saloon in Anchorage, Alaska, and began performing as a duo. They were invited to appear on The Tonight Show on August 28, 1958, where Hines’ performance of the Meredith Willson song “Till There Was You.” Legend has it that the performance brought host Jack Paar to tears, and soon the duo Ford and Hines were an in-demand booking, with appearances on The Garry Moore Show, The Hollywood Palace, The Dean Martin Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Joey Bishop Show, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and many others.

Their success also carried over into nightclubs and showrooms, and in December of 1965 Hines made her Broadway debut with a task that few thought carried the possibility of success: She replaced the immensely popular Streisand in the starring role of Funny Girl when the original star left the production. Hines was an immediate success, and stayed with the show for 18 months.

Following Funny Girl, Hines starred in national touring companies of I Do! I Do!, Prisoner of Second Avenue, Sugar Babies and Hello, Dolly!

Hines also appeared in productions of Anything Goes, Never Too Late, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, No, No Nanette, Sugar, On The Twentieth Century and Nite Club Confidential, frequently with husband Ford. She also recorded several albums.

In 1999, Hines appeared in the Frasier episode “Taps At The Montana” as Mrs. Latimer, and in the late ’90s joined the Broadway replacement cast as Miss Lynch in Grease. In 2007, she was cast as Hattie Walker in the New York City Center’s Encores! production of Follies, stopping the show with her rendition of the audience favorite “Broadway Baby.”

Ford & Hines recently were awarded a Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Fame with a planned ceremony to serve as a celebration of Hines’ life, career and marriage.

Ford died in 2005.