Sylvia Lewis

Career

Sylvia Lewis was born in York, Pennsylvania. She first performed as a young child in the last days of vaudeville in Baltimore, Maryland. She received her first classical training as a scholarship student at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, studying dance, voice and piano. She went to Hollywood at the age of twelve.

Lewis began her film career in Singin' in the Rain and Red Garters as a dancer, then in Drums of Tahiti as an actress. Later, she added choreography on her list of credits, which began while she was a regular featured character on the ABC television series Where's Raymond?, in which she played the dance partner named "Sylvia" of series star Ray Bolger. In the second season, the program was renamed The Ray Bolger Show.

Lewis has choreographed many television shows since the 1950s, including Who's the Boss? and Married... with Children. Guest appearances on shows like The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Beverly Hillbillies and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., plus a healthy stage career on both coasts, earned her a reputation as a triple-threat performer.

Sylvia Lewis lives in Thousand Oaks, California, with her husband of 38 years, attorney Philip Gunning. She has one daughter (Catherine) from her brief marriage to director John Rich, who directed The Ray Bolger Show.

Television work