Lu Leonard

Singer/comedy actress Lu Leonard was a plus-sized talent, especially notable in offbeat comedy, who took advantage of her plus-sized girth to create some memorable and formidable characters on stage, film and TV. She would go on to play atmospheric roles from wardens, waitresses and clerks to nuns, nannies and sperm bank nurses! Born Mary Lou Price in Long Beach, California on June 5, 1926, to vaudevillian parents, Lu, as she was called almost from birth, went on the road with her mom and dad as an infant. Named after her father's sister Lulu, her actress/mother, Amy Goodrich died in July of 1939, when Lou was only 13. Her actor/comedian father, "Happy" Hal Price, settled comfortably into Hollywood movies as a character player, finding hundreds of small roles in Republic and Monogram westerns. As a young singer and entertainer, Lu stuck with show business into adulthood. A short-lived marriage to another actor gave her the impetus to switch her stage moniker to "Lu Leonard", keeping