Mitzi Gaynor, “South Pacific” star, dead at 93

Singer, dancer and actress Mitzi Gaynor, who wowed audiences in film musicals like “South Pacific,” and have become a fixture on TV selection reveals and a headliner in Las Vegas, died Thursday. She was 93.

Gaynor died of pure causes in Los Angeles, in response to an announcement by her representatives.

In an eight-decade profession, Gaynor appeared in quite a few musicals within the Nineteen Fifties, together with “There’s No Enterprise Like Present Enterprise,” “Something Goes,” “Les Ladies,” and the movie model of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s smash hit “South Pacific.

Gaynor beat out a plethora of Hollywood stars, together with Doris Day, Elizabeth Taylor and Susan Hayward, who vied for the function of Nellie Forbush, a Navy nurse who sings of how she desires to “wash that man proper out of my hair.” Her efficiency within the blockbuster film made her a world star, and earned her a Golden Globe nomination.

It was the height of a string of Hollywood hits for Gaynor, however as musicals fell out of favor (her final movie was the 1963 comedy “For Love or Cash” with Kirk Douglas), she turned to live performance performances. In 1961 she made her nightclub debut on the Flamingo Resort in Las Vegas, smashing field workplace data along with her four-week residency.

She additionally turned to TV. She was a visitor on “The Ed Sullivan Present,” on the identical program that The Beatles made their second U.S. TV look. Seventy million individuals tuned in.

She appeared on selection reveals hosted by Frank Sinatra, Donald O’Connor, Jack Benny, Danny Thomas and Perry Como.

Gaynor additionally starred in a string of over-the-top, hit TV specials, during which she sang and danced, and alerted audiences that she was at all times in on the joke. “I will not do a quantity until I can have an excellent time doing it,” she stated.

She received a New York Emmy award for a documentary about her selection collection, “Mitzi Gaynor: Razzle Dazzle! The Particular Years.”

In 2019, then 88, Gaynor was nonetheless performing dwell, however resulting from a leg harm, sang whereas seated on stage, accompanied by singer and pianist Michael Feinstein. 

“It has been fairly a while since I have been capable of actually jig, however I wish to go jigging once more,” she stated.  

She was born Francesca Mitzi Marlene de Czanyi von Gerber on Sept. 4, 1931, in Chicago. Her mother and father have been Henry von Gerber, a Hungarian musical director and cellist, and Pauline Fisher Gerber, a former vaudeville dancer and aspiring songwriter.

After her mother and father’ divorce, Mitzi moved along with her mom to Detroit, the place she started classical ballet coaching. In 2019, Gaynor instructed “Sunday Morning” that when she was 11, her dance teacher stated, “Mitzi’s gonna go to Hollywood and develop into a star.”

She did transfer to Los Angeles, and whereas in highschool, “Frances Gerber” (as she was recognized) carried out on stage alongside the prima ballerina of the Ballet Russe, Mia Slavenska, in a manufacturing of Tchaikovsky’s “Music With out Phrases.” 

She made her Broadway debut at 15 in “Gypsy Woman” in 1946, and carried out in mild opera productions in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Philadelphia.

Not even 20, Mitzi Gerber was signed to a contract at twentieth Century Fox. She recalled {that a} producer there thought her title seemed like a delicatessen, “so he stated, ‘How about Gaynor, [like] Janet Gaynor?’ My father beloved it.”

Her first main function was in “My Blue Heaven” (1950), starring Betty Grable and Dan Dailey. She shortly adopted that with such lighthearted fare as “Down Among the many Sweltering Palms,” “We’re Not Married,” “Bloodhounds of Broadway,” and “The I Do not Care Lady.” She additionally starred in a western, “Three Younger Texans.” 

In 1954 she earned a few of her greatest opinions for Irving Berlin’s big-budget “There’s No Enterprise Like Present Enterprise,” showcasing her singing and comedic skills reverse Ethel Merman, Dan Dailey, Donald O’Connor, Johnny Ray and Marilyn Monroe. However earlier than filming was even accomplished, twentieth Century Fox knowledgeable Gaynor that they have been ending their contract.

Together with her new husband, supervisor Jack Bean, Gaynor signed a brand new contract with Paramount, the place she starred within the Bing Crosby musical “Something Goes.” Different credit included the comedy “The Birds & The Bees,” with David Niven, and the Frank Sinatra drama “The Joker Is Wild.” She was directed by George Cukor in MGM’s “Les Ladies,” reverse Gene Kelly, after which returned to Fox for “South Pacific.”

Her closing movies have been comedic roles, in “Blissful Anniversary,” “Shock Bundle,” and “For Love or Cash.” 

However she made additional inroads in Vegas, the place she turned the town’s highest-paid feminine entertainer. In 1970 Gaynor turned the primary feminine performer to be awarded “Star Entertainer of the 12 months.” She was additionally the primary star shopper for an up-and-coming costume designer named Bob Mackie. 

In 2017, Gaynor was inducted into The Nice American Songbook Corridor of Fame.

In 2019, Gaynor recalled to “Sunday Morning” her early romance with eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes. She calculates they have been collectively for eight months. Did she love him? “I believed I did. He requested me to marry him. Then I came upon he’d requested 47 different ladies on the similar time.”

Gaynor broke it off with Hughes, and left with fairly the parting reward. “He stated, ‘OK, I would like you to purchase some grime.’ I stated, ‘Some grime?’ He stated, ‘Sure, in Las Vegas.’ $25 an acre, which I bought possibly eight years in the past for 2 million bucks.”