Marni Nixon.
Posted on 07/25/2016 7:22:47 AM PDT by massmike
Marni Nixon, the American cinema’s most unsung singer, died on Sunday in New York. She was 86.
The cause was breast cancer, said Randy Banner, a student and friend.
Classically trained, Ms. Nixon was throughout the 1950s and ’60s the unseen — and usually uncredited — singing voice of the stars in a spate of celebrated Hollywood films. She dubbed Deborah Kerr in “The King and I,” Natalie Wood in “West Side Story” and Audrey Hepburn in “My Fair Lady,” among many others.
Starting as a teenager in the late 1940s and continuing for the next two decades, Ms. Nixon lent her crystalline soprano to some 50 films, sometimes contributing just a line or two of song — sometimes just a single, seamless note — that the actress could not manage on her own.
The voice of an angel heard by Ingrid Bergman in “Joan of Arc”? It was Ms. Nixon’s.
The songs of the nightclub singer, played by Ms. Kerr, in “An Affair to Remember”? Also Ms. Nixon.
The second line of the couplet “But square-cut or pear-shape/These rocks don’t lose their shape,” with its pinpoint high note on “their,” from “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”? That was Ms. Nixon too. (The film’s star Marilyn Monroe sang the rest of the number, “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.”)
Her other covert outings included singing for Jeanne Crain in “Cheaper by the Dozen,” Janet Leigh in “Pepe” and Ida Lupino in “Jennifer.”
Deborah Kerr was nominated for an Academy Award in 1956 for her role as Anna in “The King and I”; the film’s soundtrack album sold hundreds of thousands of copies. For singing Anna’s part on that album, Ms. Nixon recalled, she received a total of $420.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
very sad to read about this.
RIP. I think the only time she was on screen was as one of the nuns in, “Sound of Music”.
Marni Nixon.
I think she also sang a lot of German Lieder, like Kurt Weill.
Marni Nixon Sings on Youtube (medley)
ping
bkmk
Wow. I grew up singing “my fair lady” numbers around the house. I never knew it was her I wanted to sing like.
God grant her eternal rest.
That must have been delightful!
Marni sang the Mozart songs accompanied by the mandolinist who played in the "Godfather" movies. For the Chausson, she was teamed up with a pianist, two violinists, a violist and a cellist who were in town for various concerts.
His chamber concerts at the Taper were always worth attending.
Great singing voice. Too bad she didn’t get a star turn in films that she deserved. RIP.
Thanks. Andrew was a great talent as well. Rest in peace to both of them.
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