Grace Bradley

Early life

Bradley was born in Brooklyn and was an only child. As a child, she took piano lessons and, by the age of six, she gave her first recital. She attended the Eastman School of Music near Rochester, New York by age 12, after winning a scholarship. Originally, she had wanted to become a professional pianist. While in school, she took dance lessons and played piano.
She "played the piano, sang and danced, on stage and in nightclubs, from an early age to help support her widowed mother."
Her grandfather had wanted her to be educated in Berlin, Germany so that she could receive more formal education but a Broadway producer discovered her during one of her dance recitals and hired her for a professional show.
On December 22, 1930, she made her Broadway debut at New York's Hammerstein Theatre in Ballyhoo of 1930. Her next stage appearance came one year later at The Music Box Theatre in The Third Little Show. Soon Bradley found herself working in various New York nightclubs and theatres. In March 1933, she appeared in Strike Me Pink at the Majestic Theatre. She left the show after deciding to give Hollywood a try.

Death

Grace Bradley Boyd, at age 97, died on her birthday in 2010. Two days later, private services were held at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, where she was interred with her husband in the Great Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Sacred Promise.