Mitzi Gaynor, the mid-century Hollywood star who appeared in the musical films “South Pacific,” “Les Girls” and “There's No Business Like Show Business,” died Thursday. She was 93 years old.
In a statement posted on her official X account, Gaynor's management team, Rene Reyes and Shane Rosamonda, said she “passed away peacefully today from natural causes.”
“For eight decades he entertained audiences in films, television and theater. “She truly enjoyed every moment of her professional career and the great privilege of being an entertainer,” said Reyes and Rosamonda. “Offstage, she was a vibrant and extraordinary woman, a loving and loyal friend, and a warm, kind, very funny and absolutely glorious human being. And she knew how to cook too!
Gaynor, they said, often noted that his audiences were “the sunshine of my life.”
The actor, singer and dancer began dancing at age 8, beginning with ballet and tap lessons and then performing in the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera as a teenager. She danced when she was 20 when she filmed 1958's “South Pacific,” in which she played Ensign Nellie Forbush in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. He also won the hearts of the public with the 1950s films “Anything Goes” with Bing Crosby and “The Joker Is Wild” with Frank Sinatra.
Later in his career, he endeared himself to younger audiences in many television specials. She also had a significant career on stage, notably starring in her annual “Mitzi Gaynor Show” doing monologues in which she sang her bits in dialects, one of which she attributed to her father, a Hungarian-born cellist. He also appeared on the national tour of “Anything Goes” from 1980 to 1990.
“We take great comfort in the fact that his creative legacy will live on through his many magical performances captured on film and video, through his recordings and especially through the love and support that audiences around the world have so generously shared with him. her throughout her life and career. ”said his team.
Gaynor, born Francesca Marlene de Czanyi von Gerber, was born on September 4, 1931 in Chicago to a cellist father and a ballroom dancer mother who supported their daughter's interest in the performing arts from the beginning.
“When I was 9 years old, my mother and my aunt took me to see Carmen Miranda in the theatrical revue 'The streets of Paris'. I was mesmerized! he told Closer earlier this year. “I remember telling my mother, 'I can do that. I want to do that.' From that moment on, it was all about making 'Tootie,' my childhood nickname, a star.”
Two years later, Gaynor's family moved to Hollywood, and at age 17, the trained dancer signed a seven-year contract with 20th Century Fox. A studio executive persuaded her to change her name because he said it sounded like a deli, he told CBS in 2019.
“He said, 'How about Gaynor? [like] Janet Gaynor? “My father loved it,” he said.
Gaynor made his film debut in a supporting role in the musical “My Blue Heaven” (1950) opposite Betty Grable. The newcomer was in love with her famous co-star.
“I would follow her to the bathroom if I had to go to the bathroom,” he said in 2012.
Shortly after, Fox gave Gaynor her first leading role in “Golden Girl” (1951). Appearances in “Bloodhounds of Broadway” (1952) quickly followed; “Down among the protective palm trees” (1953); and “There's No Business Like Showbiz” (1954), with Ethel Merman and Marilyn Monroe.
Also in 1954, Gaynor married her agent, Jack Bean, who then left his job at MCA to start an advertising company. Bean was Gaynor's husband and manager for more than 50 years until his death in 2006. The couple never had children.
In 1960, two years after Gaynor's Golden Globe-nominated performance in “South Pacific,” Gaynor and Bean purchased their Spanish-style villa in Beverly Hills, where they frequently entertained. That year, Gaynor was also honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. (His various television specials were later nominated for 17 Emmy Awards, winning six.)
Towards the end of his career, Gaynor reinvented himself as an artist. He toured nightclubs across the United States and made his Manhattan nightclub debut in 2010, at the age of 78, on his show “Razzle Dazzle! “My life behind sequins.”
Known for her dazzling costumes, Gaynor recalled the “lost art” of dressing up in a 1993 interview with The Times.
“I can't stand grunge. I can't stand its elegance. “Dressing really is becoming a lost art, while being real has become popular,” he said. “But for those of us who lived in the '50s and '60s, dressing up was real. All those things (the eyelashes, the heels, the glamour) were real to us.”
She said she became renowned designer Bob Mackie's first client when she met him during that time. After his presentation, Gaynor mistook the young visionary for a fan.
“I said, 'Oh my God, you're 13!' Gaynor said, adding that he “almost fainted” the first time he saw his sketches. Mackie went on to design nearly 500 costumes for the movie star turned Las Vegas showgirl.
Last year, Gaynor celebrated her 92nd birthday and thanked her fans for their long-time support on social media.
Quoting “Singin' in the Rain” producer Arthur Freed, he wrote: “Why do I smile and why do I sing? Why does December seem sunny like spring? Why do I get up every morning and start? Happy and with my head held high with joy in my heart…”
“It's thanks to all of you.”
