Broadway icon Elaine Stritch dead at 89

BIRMINGHAM, Mich., July 17 (UPI) -- Actress and singer Elaine Stritch has died at age 89.

The Broadway legend died at her home in Birmingham, Mich., on Thursday. A friend confirmed Stritch's death to the New York Times.

Stritch was born in Detroit in 1925, and started her career on Broadway in the 1940s. She received a Tony Award nomination in 1956 for Bus Stop, in 1962 for Sail Away, in 1971 for Company and in 1996 for A Delicate Balance, and won an award in 2002 for her one-woman show Elaine Stritch at the Liberty. Her roles in Small Craft Warnings (1973) and The Gingerbread Lady (1974) were well received on West End during her time in London.

The star was also involved in television, and made her first TV appearance on the 1949 sitcom The Growing Paynes. She had a recurring role on My Sister Eileen in 1960, and starred in the British comedy series Two's Company in 1975. More recently, the actress portrayed Jack Donaghy's (Alec Baldwin) mother Colleen on several episodes of 30 Rock.

Stritch was married to actor John Bay for ten years before his death in 1982. The pair lived at the Savoy Hotel in London for several years, a tradition the actress later continued at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City. She relocated to Birmingham in 2013.

"Here's to the lady who lunched," actress and Girls creator Lena Dunham said in a tribute on Twitter. "Elaine Stritch, we love you. May your heaven be a booze-soaked, no-pants solo show at the Carlyle. Thank you."