Carol Bruce (November 15, 1919 – October 9, 2007) was an American band singer, Broadway star, and film and television actress.

Bruce was born Shirley Levy in Great Neck, New York, the daughter of Beatrice and Harry Levy.Carol Bruce Biography (1919-) She began her career as a singer in the late 1930s with Larry Clinton and his band. A graduate of Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, New York, she made her Broadway debut in Louisiana Purchase, which was reportedly especially written for her by Irving Berlin. She was the first actress to play the role of Julie in a Broadway production of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's Show Boat since the 1932 Broadway revival. Bruce played the role onstage in 1946 and garnered favorable comparisons to Helen Morgan, who had originated the role onstage in 1927 and repeated it in both the 1932 revival and the 1936 film.