BY JEREMY SLAYTON

Times-Dispatch Staff Writer

Liz Marks, a multi-talented performer and an influential agent and casting director for Richmond's theater arts community, died of cancer Sunday at a Richmond hospital. She was 56.

Ms. Marks operated two businesses -- Uptown Talent and Liz Marks Casting.

A native of Richmond, Ms. Marks began to develop a love of performing early in life. Her mother, Helen Wallerstein Marks, was a performer and a prima ballerina. Ms. Marks and her siblings grew up listening to and watching musicals.

Ms. Marks graduated from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and went on to enjoy a successful career as a singer and entertainer in New York during the 1970s. She regularly performed at clubs such as Dangerfield's, Reno Sweeney and Club Gypsy Tea.

She also soloed in Leonard Bernstein's Mass at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington. She played Atlantic City as well and toured with the USO in Guatemala, El Salvador and Guantanamo Bay.

After returning to Richmond in 1980, Ms. Marks founded Valle's Dinner Theatre on West Broad Street and produced the shows "Hullabaloo '82" and "I Do! I Do!"

She also sang cabaret songs at Matt's British Pub. Her talent was so diverse, she could break out a rendition of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" if someone in the crowd just had to hear it, said her brother, Morton "Tracy" Marks III of Richmond.

Ms. Marks continued to perform her cabaret show and played regularly at ComedySportz Improv Theatre on Staples Mill Road, performing until last month.

In 1987, Ms. Marks founded Uptown Talent and helped local actors land auditions. She later formed Liz Marks Casting and helped actors land roles in commercials, movies and television shows.

Dawn Westbrook, a local actor who was cast by Ms. Marks in such films as HBO's "Iron Jawed Angels" and DreamWorks' "The Contender." said Ms. Marks "was unbelievably supportive" of the local performers.

"She filled a need here in Richmond" and made sure directors knew that the area was known as a place to find talented actors, Westbrook said.

Phil Whiteway, managing director of the Barksdale Theatre/Theatre IV, said Ms. Marks "touched so many of us working in the talent industry."

Ms. Marks was nominated for an Emmy Award for outstanding casting in a movie for her work on "Iron Jawed Angels."

Having defeated breast cancer once, Ms. Marks was active in the American Cancer Society and released a benefit single of "Lean on Me" with a choir of cancer survivors.

"She was a fireball of energy," her brother said. "Her perseverance . . . she wouldn't take no for an answer. She made things happen."

In addition to her brother, Ms. Marks' survivors include a daughter, Elizabeth Marks Caldwell of Hanover County; another brother, Robert Marks of Washington; and a sister, Kathi Marks Merritt of Richmond.

A funeral will be held Wednesday at the Central Chapel of Bliley's Funeral Home, 3801 Augusta Ave., in Richmond. Burial will follow at Berea Baptist Church cemetery in Rockville.