Faith Prince

A Broadway star who has yet to be tapped with regularity for TV and film, the auburn-haired Faith Prince had her breakthrough as Miss Adelaide opposite Nathan Lane's Nathan Detroit in Jerry Zaks' acclaimed 1992 revival of "Guys and Dolls." Although she had previously played the part in a 1985 Seattle production, the singer-actress drew unanimous raves and won both a Drama Desk and Tony Award for her efforts.

Prince had made her New York stage debut in "Scrambled Feet," an Off-Broadway revue at the Village Gate Theatre that also toured the USA. But it was not until ten years later that she finally made it to Broadway in a featured role in "Jerome Robbins' Broadway" (1989), for which she earned her first Tony nomination. Along the way she had trekked the country in a variety of prestige production, including the Off-Broadway premieres "Groucho" and William Finn's "Falsettoland."

Prince first worked in motion pictures playing the bimbo girlfriend of Christopher Murney in Berry Gordy's "The Last Dragon" (1985). Her subsequent feature work has mostly been to little effect. In 1993, she was a secretary in Ivan Reitman's superlative comedy "Dave" and had brief roles in Steve Miner's less than stellar "Big Bully" (1996) and the Jennifer Aniston vehicle "Picture Perfect" (1997). One of her most substantial big screen roles was as Gerard Depardieu's confidante in Miner's "My Father, The Hero" (1994).

Following her Broadway success, Prince was given a pilot deal by CBS, but the result failed to make it to series. The actress first had TV exposure in 1988 as part of the ensemble of the educational HBO sketch series "Encyclopedia." As a cast member of the stage musical, she appeared in "'Guys and Dolls' Off the Record," a 1992 PBS special about the making of the show album. Prince played Kathleen Turner's feminist neighbor in the CBS TV-movie "Friends at Last" (1995) and appeared as Val Brumberg, a friend of Mary McDonnell's Dott Emerson in the first few episodes of the sitcom "High Society" (CBS, 1995). Prince was pregnant with her son at the time which was incorporated into the show, but her character remained annoying and was dropped after a handful of episodes.

While the initial hoopla from "Guys and Dolls" did not bring the career luster for which Prince may have hoped, she nevertheless prevailed. Despite a Broadway flop (1994's "What's Wrong With This Picture?"), she continued to make periodic appearances in staged concerts ("Fiorello!" 1994; "DuBarry Was a Lady" 1996) and revues ("Three of Hearts" 1996). In 1997, she returned to the Great White Way replacing Donna Murphy as Mrs. Anna in the acclaimed revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "The King and I," opposite Lou Diamond Phillips (and later Kevin Gray). That same year, she found small screen success in the recurring role of the girlfriend of the mayoral press secretary (Richard Kind) on the ABC sitcom "Spin City."