Legendary Elaine Strich laments her life away from NYC: “I’m about as unhappy as anybody can be”

Elaine Stritch lived for many years at The Carlyle Hotel in New York City during which time she was the toast of Broadway.

But these days, the Tony and Emmy winner is living in what she describes as ‘a beautiful condo’ in Birmingham, Michigan, and she’s not especially happy about it. But at 88 and with diabetes, she is now living close to family.

‘I said this out loud the other day: “I’m about as unhappy as anybody can be,”‘ she tells Vanity Fair. ‘I’m sorry to have to tell you that. But what’s the sense of telling you that I’m just happy as a clam when I’m not? You know what I mean? … I don’t have a damned thing to do except take walks in Birmingham, Michigan, and I’ve done that. [Laughs] Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.’

Always in demand on stage and in television and film, Stritch now says ‘I think I have to take it easy. I don’t think my health is up to really doing a lot of work. But if they hire me to do a job, they have to pay me respectably, and they have to, you know, have me travel always with a caretaker. Which I don’t like at all, but that’s the way it has to be. So I’m penned in. I’m penned in, and I don’t like it.’

Does she miss living in The Carlyle Hotel?

‘Oh my God, who wouldn’t?! [Laughs] I mean, come on, that’s, you know, class-act city. That’s just the best place to live in the world. Anything you want is at your fingertips, you know? And the power of your projection, which I’ve been rather known for all my life. [Laughs]’

Hang in there Elaine!