Mitzi Gaynor, star of big musicals of the 1950s, including “South Pacific,” “Les Girls” and a series of beloved 1970s specials, died Thursday. She was 93 years old.
Gaynor’s management team, Rene Reyes and Shane Rosamunda, confirmed the announcement diverse She died of natural causes.
“For eight decades, she has entertained audiences in films, television and on stage. “She truly enjoyed every moment of her career and the great privilege of being an artist,” Reyes and Rosamunda wrote in a statement on Gaynor’s X account. “Off the stage, she was a vibrant and extraordinary woman, A caring and loyal friend, a warm, generous, very funny and absolutely glorious person.”
Gaynor starred as naval nurse Nellie Forbush in the 1958 big-screen adaptation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “South Pacific” alongside Rosano Brazzi as French farmer Emile de Beck and John Kerr as Lieutenant Cable. Gaynor sang for herself although many of the other actors did not, and as Nellie she performed the famous song “I’ll Wash This Man Straight Out of My Hair”, with which she became associated for the rest of her life. life.
A year earlier, she starred with Gene Kelly and Kay Kendall in the musical Les Girls directed by George Cukor.
Francesca Marlene de Cazzani von Gerber was born in Chicago. Her mother was a dancer, and her father was a violinist and cellist. The family moved to Detroit, then to Los Angeles when she was 11, so she continued studying dance with the same teacher who had moved on. In 1942, she became a member of the corps de ballet of the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera.
Gaynor’s career can be neatly divided into two central parts: the 1950s, during which she starred in a series of musicals, most famously “Les Girls” and “South Pacific”; And later, as The New York Times said, “Her brassy enthusiasm and inexhaustible stamina as a leggy dancer in Bob Mackie’s Splendor found their final outlet in a groundbreaking series of television specials that aired from 1967 to 1978.”
The Times said Gaynor “was never a vocal powerhouse, yet her singing conveyed enough verve and character to enable her to pull off a sparkling production number.”
When she was young, the attractive blonde Gaynor combined innocence with a certain naughtiness.
Gaynor first appeared in the 1950s film “My Blue Heaven,” starring Dan Dailey and Betty Grable. By the following year, she landed her first starring role in the musical “Golden Girl,” in which she played real-life Civil War-era entertainer Lotta Crabtree. She was part of the cast of 1952’s “We’re Not Married!” With Marilyn Monroe and Zsa Zsa Gabor; That same year she starred in the musical Bloodhounds of Broadway, based on the stories by Damon Runyon and set among gangsters in the 1920s.
Gaynor appeared in the musicals Ain’t No Business Like Show Business (1954) with Ethel Merman, Donald O’Connor and Marilyn Monroe, and Anything Goes (1956) with Bing Crosby and O’Connor.
She had a supporting role in Frank Sinatra’s “The Joker Is Wild” in 1957 (although she was credited second only to Sinatra despite her relatively few minutes in the film).
After South Pacific, Gaynor appeared in only three other films: the romantic comedy Happy Anniversary with David Niven; the Stanley Donen-directed comedy “Surprise Package,” in which the actress starred with Yul Brynner and Noel Coward; And in 1963, the comedy “For Love or Money” with Kirk Douglas.
But it wasn’t so much Gaynor’s film career that was waning as it was in the era of the movie musical. “Les Girls” was Gene Kelly’s final musical for MGM, home to many of Hollywood’s best musicals over the past three decades.
The actress, dancer, and singer began appearing on various shows such as “The Frank Sinatra Show,” “The Ed Sullivan Show,” and “The Dick Clark Show”; Her first special was an episode of “The Kraft Music Hall” series called “Mitzi Gaynor Christmas Show” in 1967. She released independent specials in 1968 (guests were George Hamilton and Phil Harris), 1969 (Ross Martin) and 1973 (Ken Perry, Dan Dailey, and Mike Connors). In 1974, the film “Mitzi… Tribute to the American Housewife” was released, which also starred Ted Knight, Jerry Orbach, Jane Withers, Cliff Norton, and Susan Pleshette; The following year there was “Mitzi and a Hundred Guys” with Jack Albertson, Michael Landon and many other celebrities; 1976 saw “Mitzi… Roarin’ in the 20’s” with Carl Reiner and Ken Perry (who won an Emmy for Bob Mackie’s costume designs); Next was “Mitzi…Zings in the Spring” (1977) with Roy Clark and Wayne Rogers; Finally there was 1978’s “Mitzi… What’s Hot, What’s Not Hot,” starring Gavin MacLeod, John McCook, and Benny Goodman. In all, the nine shows received 16 Emmy nominations.
Gaynor has also remained in the public eye through his performances at award shows. At the 1967 Academy Awards, she sang “Georgy Girl” and danced to rapturous applause.
Gaynor recorded two albums for Vervey, “Mitzi” and “Mitzi Gaynor Sings Lyrics by Ira Gershwin,” and appeared regularly in Las Vegas and at nightclubs throughout the United States and Canada.
From 2008 to 2011, Gaynor toured intermittently with her show “Mitzi… Razzle Dazzle!”, in which she reminisced about her glamorous life, including meeting the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and her experiences with the likes of Howard Hughes, Gene Kelly, and Marilyn Monroe and “There’s No Business Like Show Business” co-star Ethel Merman, who Gaynor said told the dirtiest joke she’d ever heard.
The New York Times was a bit skeptical in 2010, saying that “the mixed-media biography I brought to Feinstein’s house can only be described as a disingenuous, convoluted chance encounter with the stars.”
On July 30, 2008, Gaynor performed with Shirley MacLaine and a variety of others in the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ “TV Moves Live” gala, a celebration of six decades of dancing on television.
Also in 2008, the documentary “Mitzi Gaynor Razzle Dazzle: The Special Years”, which reviewed her variety show years, aired on PBS.
Gaynor was married to agent and producer Jack Penn from 1954 until his death in 2006.