Helen Hanft, a brassy performer who established herself as a regular presence on the small stages of the Off-Off-Broadway movement of the 1960s and '70s to such an extent that New York Times drama critic Mel Gussow called her the "Ethel Mermen of the Underground," died from intestinal complications May 30 at Roosevelt Hospital.
SOURCE: Playbill at 08:17PM on June 2, 2013