(Ronald Bergan’s article appeared in the Guardian, 7/15)
Celeste Holm, who has died aged 95, was the original Ado Annie in Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein's groundbreaking musical Oklahoma! which opened on Broadway in 1943. In I Cain't
Say No, she sang: "I cain't be prissy and quaint / I ain't the type that can faint." Annie was a none-too-bright farm girl, but Holm was a smart, witty and sophisticated actor, whom everybody seemed to like. Many years later, during the interval of a Broadway show, she came out on stage and made a plea for her mental-health charity. It was done with such sincerity and passion that the audience could not fail to pay up.