Beatrice Reading was born in Chester, Pennsylvania. Her performing career started at the age of 3, when she was talent-spotted by Bill “Bojangles” Robinson. She appeared in the all-black revue The Jazz Train, in Paris in the spring of 1955 and at the Piccadilly Theatre in London. In this show she had notable success playing the great blues singer Bessie Smith. Adept at a whole range of musical styles, from gospel to blues to musical comedy, in addition to her talent, Reading also had a striking appearance and a renowned sense of humor. Her straight-acting performance as a nurse in William Faulkner’s play Requiem for a Nun in 1957 earned her a nomination for a Tony Award when it transferred to Broadway. She also appeared in the 1958 musical Valmouth, adapted from a Ronald Firbank novel of the same name. The next years saw Reading spending time abroad in cabaret, as well as having two marriages. In 1979 she appeared at the Roundhouse in London in Only In America, a tribute show to the musical composers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. In the 1980s she presented many one-woman shows, usually debuting at the Kings Head Theatre Club in Islington, London. In the 1985 solo show Every Inch a Lady, she donned a pink satin tutu and danced to a version of The Sugar Plum Fairy, which had been choreographed by the dancer Wayne Sleep. She also appeared in South Pacific as Bloody Mary in Bournemouth in 1987. Her final appearance was in the 1986 movie version of Little Shop of Horrors, as the “Downtown” older woman, who sings the beginning words to the song “Skid Row (Downtown)”. Reading died at the age of 57 in London, following a stroke, although her age was initially misreported as 54.