Broadway star Sondra Lee, who played Tiger Lily in original Peter Pan musical, dies at 97

Veteran performer Sondra Lee, pictured above in New York City in 2009, has died at 97. Photo / Will Ragozzino Getty Images

Broadway star Sondra Lee has died after a seven-decade career as a dancer, actor, director and teacher. She was 97.

She is best known for her performances in the original production of Peter Pan as Tiger Lily and Hello, Dolly! as Minnie Fay.

Lee died from natural causes in her New York apartment, her friend Joshua Ellis announced.

Born in 1928, Lee was short in stature at 1.49m (4ft 10in) but reached the upper echelons of performing arts.

After studying ballet at Studio 61 in Carnegie Hall, she made her Broadway debut in 1947 in High Button Shoes as a corps de ballet dancer.

However, fame came after she met renowned choreographer Jerome Robbins and together they created Tiger Lily in the musical adaptation of Peter Pan in 1954. The next year the musical was shown on television to a reported audience of 65 million viewers.

With TV still new, the cast had no idea what they were in for.

In an interview with the New York Post, Lee recalled boarding a train the next day and “a whole bunch of people came up to me on the platform and said, ‘We saw you last night! We saw you last night!’ Honestly, we had no idea how many people would be watching”.

Alongside performing, Lee mentored the likes of Jane Fonda, Sally Field, Marlon Brando, Dustin Hoffman, Natalia Makarova, John Malkovich, Amy Adams, Matt Dillon, Cyndi Lauper, Joan Jett and John Lloyd Young, reports the Hollywood Reporter.

Born Sondra Lee Gash, she grew up in Newark, New Jersey, and had a sickly childhood with frequent bouts of pneumonia and received shots of growth hormones, according to Masterworks Broadway.

Even in her old age she performed. After decades away from the stage, she returned to Carnegie Hall in 2025 for a final performance of Hello, Dolly! with the Transport Group theatre company.