The Odd Couple Women
Do you remember “The Coo-Coo Pigeon Sisters,” from The Odd Couple, Cecily and Gwendolyn Pigeon? They were played by two British actresses, Monica Evans portrayed Cecily and Carole Shelley played Gwendolyn. They are best known throughout the world for those two roles. They performed the roles in the Original Broadway Company with Walter Mathau and Art Carney in 1965. The play opened at the Plymouth Theatre on March 10th and ran for a total of 964 performances till July 2nd, 1967 (with two additional previews). They then recreated the roles for the hit 1968 film version with Walter Mathau and Jack Lemmon. The reprised them for a second time for a few episodes The Odd Couple (1970-1975) television series with Jack Klugman and Tony Randall.
Evans and Shelley were also no strangers to the Walt Disney Studios. Together, they voiced the two Geese sisters, Abigail and Amelia Gabble, in The AristoCats (1970). Evans voiced Abigail and and Shelley voiced Amelia. They were cast in Robin Hood (1973) 3 years later, with Evans as the voice of Maid Marian and Shelley as the voice of Lady Kluck. Shelley was also featured in Disney’s Jungle 2 Jungle (1997) and voiced Lachesis the Fate in Disney’s Hercules (1997). (The Odd Couple (1968) also featured two other Disney veterans. John Fiedler, who is best known throughout the world as the voice of Piglet in Winnie the Pooh, played Felix and Oscar’s poker playing buddy Vinnie, and Herb Edelman who played Dorothy’s ex-husband, Stanley Zbornak, on Disney/ABC’s The Golden Girls (1985-1992) played Felix and Oscar’s other poker buddy, Murray.)
Evans and Shelley maintained a close friendship throughout each adaptation of The Odd Couple that continued into the early 1980s. At that point, their careers begun to take different paths, and they just lost touch with each other. Although, Evans did serve as Shelley’s maid of honor at her wedding to Albert G. Woods in 1967. After lending her voice to Robin Hood (1973), Evans retired from the acting world and relocated to her native UK, while Shelley remained in the US and continued acting in television, film, and theatre. In 1979, she won her one and only Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her role as Mrs. Kendall for the dramatic play, The Elephant Man. She appeared in revivals of the musicals Show Boat and Cabaret in the 1990’s, but she is also known throughout the world today for originating the role of Madame Morrible in the smash hit musical, Wicked, in 2003. She reprised the role in the show’s national touring company 2005, and in the Chicago Production of 2006. She appeared in the 2005 film Bewitched as Samantha’s loony Aunt Clara under the direction of Nora Ephron (Director of Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and You’ve Got Mail (1998)) and opposite Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrell, and her Wicked co-star, Kristin Chenoweth.
Monica Evans and Carole Shelley will be forever remembered as the two sisters from England whose laughter resembles the noise of pigeons cooing in The Odd Couple. They did, however, go on to have other notable and enjoyable roles throughout the durations of each of their careers. In each of their collaborations with one other, we as an audience, always get to hear their distinctive laughter. Their laughter is what really makes the pairing of the two of them work, so it really is quite extraordinary that the chemistry of two actors work so well, simply because of unique laughing.
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