- Born
- Died
- Birth nameBertha Levine
- Madame Spivy was born on September 30, 1906 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and All Fall Down (1962). She died on January 7, 1971 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Operated the nightclub Spivy's Roof, New York City, 1940-1951.
- From 1940-1951 she ran her own nightclub, Spivy's Roof, on the top floor of 139 East 57th Street. The club was noted for its tolerance of gay performers and patrons; Spivy herself was a lesbian in private life. Among the artists who performed there were Frances Faye, Mabel Mercer, Moms Mabley, Alberta Hunter, Thelma Carpenter, Martha Raye, Bea Arthur, Liberace, and actor-magician Fred Keating.
- Spivy had supporting roles in the films The Fugitive Kind, Studs Lonigan, All Fall Down, Requiem for a Heavyweight, and The Manchurian Candidate, where her stout physique led to her being cast as matronly or villainous characters.
- Her best-remembered television appearance is a darkly humorous installment of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, the 1959 episode "Specialty of the House" in which she played the manager of a restaurant whose unsuspecting guests implicitly end up on the menu.
- Her ribald lyrics caused many to crown her the "female Noel Coward.".
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