Edra Jean "E.J." Peaker was born in Oklahoma on February 22, 1944,
making the youthful Minnie Fay a scant two years younger than
the "elder" Mrs. Levi when she co-starred opposite Barbra
Streisand in the film Hello, Dolly!
E.J.
maintained a modestly successful career in show business prior
to and after her
first film appearance in Dolly. E.J. has had numerous
television parts, including a one episode shot in the 1966
landmark comedy, That Girl, starring Marlo Thomas (left). E.J.
even had her own short lived ABC sitcom, That's Life
(with Robert Morse) in 1968.
With her Minnie Fay days long
behind her, E.J. showed up on the 2001 television docudrama,
Surviving Gilligan's Island, playing the eccentric (and
aged) Mrs. Howell/Natalie Schaefer (right). Time does indeed fly.
Did
you know that both Barbra and E.J. Peaker were on Broadway at the
same time? In 1964, if you couldn't get a ticket to see Barbra
in Funny Girl, you could have gone across the street and
possibly seen E.J. perform the understudy lead role opposite
Robert Redford and Herb Edelman (both later to appear with
Barbra in The Way We Were) in Barefoot in the Park.
E.J. Peaker
resides in Los Angeles.
