- - Cleo Laine, Preeminent U.K. Jazz Singer and Tony-Nominated Theater Actress, Dies at 97

Chris WillmanJuly 26, 2025 at 1:25 AM

Cleo Laine, considered by many to be the U.K.’s preeminent jazz singer, and an accomplished theater actress in her home country as well as on Broadway, died Thursday at age 97.

The death was announced by leading figures in the Stables, a British arts center that Laine founded with her late husband, the musician and composer John Dankworth, in Buckinghamshire. No cause of death was given.

“Dame Cleo” was described as “the most recognizable British jazz singer in history” in an obituary from the BBC, which additionally noted, “One critic said that she was one of Britain’s two great contributions to jazz — the other being gin.”

Although she found her greatest fame in her home country, she was well-known in America as well, with plenty of Grammy recognition, as well as a Tony nomination in 1986 for her successful run as Princess Puffer in the Charles Dickens-based murder mystery “The Mystery of Edwin Drood.”

Back in the 1970s, Derek Jewell of London’s Sunday Times called her “quite simply the best singer in the world.” Around the same time, the Washington Post’s Mark Kernis wrote, “She’s never been able to generate the kind of excitement associated here (in the U.S.) with, say, Barbra Streisand or Ella Fitzgerald. Unfortunate, since Cleo Laine’s voice is just as unique and overpowering as any that ever left a larynx. Laine can dip effortlessly into smoky lows and then reach through the stratosphere for perfectly pitched highs. And she can hold most notes at either end long enough for you to get a cup of coffee.”

At one point, Laine was claimed to be the only musician to have been nominated in jazz, pop and classical categories. Her sole Grammys win came in 1985, when she was awarded best jazz vocal performance, female in 1985 for her album “Cleo at Carnegie – The 10th Anniversary Concert.” Eleven years earlier, she had been nominated for that album’s prequel, “Cleo Laine Live at Carnegie Hall,” albeit in the best pop vocal performance, female category. In 1975, Laine was nominated for best classical vocal soloist performance for the album “Cleo Laine Sings Pierrot Lunaire and Songs by Ives.” Her other jazz vocal performance nominations were for the albums “Porgy and Bess” and “Smilin’ Through.”

She recorded collaborative albums with Ray Charles, Mel Torme, Dudley Moore, James Galway, Annie Ross and the Duke Ellington Orchestra, among others. Although she did not record with Frank Sinatra, she did a five-night residency alongside him in 1992 at the Royal Albert Hall.

“Edwin Drood” turned out to be Laine’s only appearance on Broadway. But she was heralded by critics for her role as the Witch in a 1989 touring production of Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods.” “If ever a witch there was, it’s Cleo Laine,” Los Angeles Times critic Dan Sullivan wrote in his review.

Most of her stage work was in the U.K., however. Her legit roles there began in the 1950s and included such shows as “Flesh to a Tiger,” “The Barren One,” “Valmouth” and “Yerma.” Her most famous run there was as Julie in a 1971 West End revival of “Show Boat” that continued for hundreds of performances.

Laine was awarded an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1979.

She was born in 1927 in Southall, Middlesex to a laborer and farmer’s daughter. When she was 24, she auditioned for a group that included her future husband, Dankworth. Her first husband, however, was roof tiler George Langridge, whom she divorced in 1957. They had one son, Stuart, who died in 2019 at age 72. Laine was wed to Dankworth from 1958 until his death in 2010.

Laine is survived by her two children with Dankworth — Alec, 65, a composer, and Jacqueline, 62, a leading jazz singer in the U.K. in her own right.

Laine performed in concert into her 90s. A 2018 review of a show in which she was joined by her son and daughter said, “Any worries that this would just be a chat with a bit of nonagenarian crooning were quickly banished: the legend remains a warm and witty human being, capable of transfixing her audience with those flashing eyes and spontaneous laughter, and her amazing technique still serves her well in her unique, wide-range vocalising.”

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