Mitzi Gaynor, who made an unsuccessful attempt to "wash that man right outa my hair" as nurse Nellie Forbush in "South Pacific," passed away at the age of 93. Her singing and dancing enlivened Hollywood musicals throughout the 1950s.
According to her management team, Gaynor passed away quietly from natural causes on Thursday.
"She delighted audiences on stage, in movies, and on television for eight decades... She was a kind, kind, hilarious, and all-around wonderful human being off stage. She was also a compassionate and devoted friend, they wrote on X.
Gaynor played important parts in the 1954 movie "There's No Business Like Show Business" with Ethel Merman and Marilyn Monroe, as well as the 1957 movies "The Joker Is Wild" with Frank Sinatra and "Les Girls" with Gene Kelly. She sang Cole Porter's title song in "Anything Goes," which she costarred in with Bing Crosby and Donald O'Connor the year before.
After a little over ten years in the film industry, Gaynor found fame performing in nightclubs and hosting a number of yearly television variety shows in the 1960s and 1970s. In her 80s, she continued to perform her autobiographical stage show, "Razzle Dazzle! My Life Behind the Sequins," which included singing, dancing, and memories.
Gaynor was born in Chicago as Francesca Marlene de Czanyi von Gerber. Her father was a violinist and musical director, while her mother was a dancer. She joined the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera after relocating to California, falsifying three years to her age to give the impression that she was sixteen. After noticing her, 20th Century Fox executives extended an offer of a contract.
She changed her last name to Gaynor when actor George Jessel suggested it because it reminded her of a delicatessen or the Gerber baby food brand.
NO ENERGY DEPRIVATION
She would go on to make almost 20 films that required a vocalist or dancer with a lot of energy, starting with the Betty Grable-Dan Dailey musical "My Blue Heaven" in 1950.
Gaynor reportedly remarked, "If there were four people waiting for the streetcar, I'd put on an entire act," in reference to her passion for performing.
Observing Gaynor's dancing on the set of "The I Don't Care Girl," pianist Oscar Levant remarked of her: "There's nothing wrong with being an exhibitionist - if you've got something to exhibit."
Gaynor dated studio head and entrepreneur Howard Hughes while her career was taking off.
"He was dashing, handsome, rich, mysterious," she replied. "I fell deeply and passionately for him. He proposed after five months of a frenzied courtship that included airplanes.
She ended the relationship and wed Jack Bean, who would be her manager and exclusive spouse.
The film adaptation of "South Pacific," a 1949 Broadway musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein that had won ten Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, was Gaynor's Hollywood high point. Gaynor was cast in the highly coveted part that Mary Martin had played on Broadway in the eagerly anticipated 1958 film.
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She portrayed the innocent young Arkansas nurse Nellie Forbush, who was deployed in the Pacific theater of World War Two and fell in love with French expatriate planter Emile De Becque (played by Rossano Brazzi). Because De Becque has two mixed-race children, Nellie declines his marriage proposal. However, after he disappears while on a Navy-backed mission against the Japanese, Nellie comes to see that her racial prejudice is misplaced and falls in love with the kids.
Despite its lack of critical acclaim, the movie was one of the 1950s' top box office hits. Gaynor was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance.
Songs like "Some Enchanted Evening," "Bali Ha'i," "There Is Nothing Like a Dame," "I'm in Love With a Wonderful Guy," and "Younger Than Springtime" were among the many hits that were included on the film's soundtrack. As her character attempted to move on from De Becque, one of the movie's most memorable moments was when Gaynor sang the upbeat song "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair" on the beach.
As the Hollywood musical era came to an end, Gaynor's final on-screen appearance was in the 1963 film "For Love or Money," in which she costarred with Kirk Douglas.
After that, she focused on live stage performances and started doing them frequently at the large resorts in Las Vegas. Beginning in 1967, she also hosted a number of television variety shows with titles like "Mitzi... And a Hundred Guys," "Mitzi... What's Hot, What's Not," and "Mitzi... A Tribute to the American Housewife."
The theme song from "Georgy Girl" won an Oscar for best original song at the 1967 ceremony, and she was one of the performers who performed at the Academy Awards on multiple occasions.
Gaynor partnered with a young Bob Mackie during her time in Las Vegas, helping him launch his career as a costumer with an eye for tassels, beads, feathers, sequins, and rhinestones. throughout addition, Mackie designed the dresses she wore throughout her TV appearances.
Before his death in 2006, Gaynor and Bean had been married for 52 years, however they had no children together.
