Mitzi Gaynor, the singer, dancer and actress who wowed audiences in musical films such as “South Pacific” and became a regular on TV variety shows and as a Las Vegas headliner, died Thursday. She was 93 years old.
Gaynor’s representative said in a statement that Gaynor died of natural causes in Los Angeles.
During his 80-year career, Gaynor appeared in numerous musicals in the 1950s, including “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” “Anything Goes,” “Les Girls,” and the Rodgers and Hammerstein blockbuster “South Pacific.” did.
Gaynor beat out many Hollywood stars who competed for the role of Navy nurse Nellie Forbush, who sings, “I want to wash that man out of my hair,” including Doris Day, Elizabeth Taylor, and Susan Hayward. Her performance in this blockbuster film made her an international star and earned her a Golden Globe nomination.
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It was the culmination of Gaynor’s string of Hollywood hits, but as musicals fell out of favor (her last film was the 1963 comedy For Love or Money, starring Kirk Douglas). , turned to concert performance. In 1961, she made her nightclub debut at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, breaking box office records during her four-week stay.
She also turned to television. She made a guest appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” the same program on which the Beatles made their second television appearance in the United States. 70 million people watched it.
She appeared on variety shows hosted by Frank Sinatra, Donald O’Connor, Jack Benny, Danny Thomas, and Perry Como.
Gaynor also appeared in a series of flashy and hit television specials in which he sang and danced, warning viewers that he was always joking. “I don’t do a lot of things unless I’m having a good time,” she said.
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She won a New York Emmy Award for the documentary about her variety series, “Mitzi Gaynor: Razzle Dazzle! The Special Years.”
In 2019, Gaynor, then 88 years old, was still performing live, but due to a foot injury, he was singing while seated on stage, accompanied by singer and pianist Michael Feinstein.
“It’s been a while since I was able to do jigging seriously, but I want to do it again,” he said.
She was born Francesca Mizzi Marlene de Zany von Gerber on September 4, 1931 in Chicago. Her parents were Henry von Garber, a Hungarian music director and cellist, and Pauline Fisher Garber, a former vaudeville dancer and aspiring songwriter.
After her parents’ divorce, Mitzi moved with her mother to Detroit, where she began training in classical ballet. In 2019, Gaynor said on “Sunday Morning.” When she was 11 years old, her dance instructor said, “Mitzi will go to Hollywood and become a star.”
She moved to Los Angeles, and while in high school, “Frances Garber” (as she was known) performed with Prima Ballet Russe prima ballerina Mia Slavenska in a production of Tchaikovsky’s “Songs Without Words.”
She made her Broadway debut in 1946 at the age of 15 in “The Gypsy Lady” and appeared in light opera productions in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and Philadelphia.
Mitzi Garber, not yet 20 years old, signed a contract with 20th Century Fox. She recalled that one producer thought her name sounded like delicatessen, “so he said, ‘Gaynor, how about a Gaynor (like Janet Gaynor)?'” My father loved it. ”
Her first major role was in “My Blue Heaven” (1950) starring Betty Grable and Dan Daly. She soon followed up with lighter fare such as “Down Among the Sweltering Palms,” “We’re Not Wedding,” “Bloodhounds of Broadway,” and “The I Don’t Care Girl.” She also appeared in the western film Three Young Texans.
In 1954, she appeared with Ethel Merman, Dan Daley, Donald O’Connor, Johnny Ray, Marilyn Monroe, and others in Irving Berlin’s big-budget film The Show, where she demonstrated her talent for singing and comedy. There’s no business better than business”, which received the highest rating. However, before filming was complete, 20th Century Fox notified Gaynor that they were terminating his contract.
Gaynor and her new husband and manager Jack Bean signed a new contract with Paramount, starring in the Bing Crosby musical Anything Goes. Other credits include the David Niven comedy “The Birds & The Bees” and the Frank Sinatra drama “The Joker Is Wild.” She starred opposite Gene Kelly in MGM’s Les Girls, directed by George Cukor, before returning to Fox to star in South Pacific.
Her last appearances were comedic roles in “Happy Anniversary,” “Surprise Package,” and “For Love or Money.”
But she made further inroads in Vegas, where she became the city’s highest-paid female entertainer. In 1970, Gaynor became the first female performer to win the Star Entertainer of the Year award. She was also the first star client of an up-and-coming costume designer named Bob Mackie.
In 2017, Gaynor was inducted into the Great American Songbook Hall of Fame.
In 2019, Gaynor recalled her early romance with eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes on Sunday Morning. She calculates that they have been together for eight months. did she love him? “I thought so. He asked me to marry him. Then I found out he was proposing to 47 women at the same time.”
Gaynor ended his relationship with Hughes and left with a considerable farewell. “He said, ‘Okay, I want you to buy some dirt.’” I said, “Some kind of dirt?” He said, “Yes, in Las Vegas.” $25 an acre, I sold it for maybe $2 million eight years ago. ”
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