"South Pacific" star Mitzi Gaynor dead at 93

From the archives: Entertainer Mitzi Gaynor

From the archives: Entertainer Mitzi Gaynor 08:51

Singer, dancer and actress Mitzi Gaynor, who wowed audiences in movie musicals like "South Pacific," and became a fixture on TV variety shows and a headliner in Las Vegas, died Thursday. She was 93.

Gaynor died of natural causes in Los Angeles, according to an announcement by her representatives.

In an eight-decade career, Gaynor appeared in numerous musicals in the 1950s, including "There's No Business Like Show Business," "Anything Goes," "Les Girls," and the film version of Rodgers & Hammerstein's smash hit "South Pacific.

Gaynor beat out a plethora of Hollywood stars, including Doris Day, Elizabeth Taylor and Susan Hayward, who vied for the role of Nellie Forbush, a Navy nurse who sings of how she wants to "wash that man right out of my hair." Her performance in the blockbuster movie made her an international star, and earned her a Golden Globe nomination.

Mitzi Gaynor in a publicity still for the movie "South Pacific." Herbert Dorfman/Corbis via Getty Images

It was the peak of a string of Hollywood hits for Gaynor, but as musicals fell out of favor (her last film was the 1963 comedy "For Love of Money" with Kirk Douglas), she turned to TV. She was a guest on "The Ed Sullivan Show," on the same program that The Beatles made their second U.S. TV appearance. Seventy million people tuned in.

Gaynor would star in a string of over-the-top, hit TV specials, in which she sang and danced, and alerted audiences that she was always in on the joke. "I won't do a number unless I can have a good time doing it," she said.

Mitzi Gaynor whips up a little something in the kitchen in her 1974 TV special, "Mitzi... A Tribute to the American Housewife." CBS

She won a New York Emmy award for a documentary about her variety series, "Mitzi Gaynor: Razzle Dazzle! The Special Years."

In 2019, then 88, Gaynor was still performing live, but due to a leg injury, sang while seated on stage, accompanied by singer and pianist Michael Feinstein. 

"It's been quite some time since I've been able to really jig, but I want to go jigging again," she said.  

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

After her parents' divorce, Mitzi moved with her mother to Detroit, where she began classic ballet training. In 2019, Gaynor told "Sunday Morning" that when she 11, her dance instructor said, "Mitzi's gonna go to Hollywood and become a star."

She did move to Los Angeles, and while in high school, "Frances Gerber" (as she was known) performed on stage alongside the prima ballerina of the Ballet Russe, Mia Slavenska, in a production of Tchaikovsky's "Song Without Words." 

She made her Broadway debut at 15 in "Gypsy Lady" in 1946, and performed in light opera productions in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Philadelphia.

Not even 20, Mitzi Gerber was signed to a contract at 20th Century Fox. She recalled that a producer there thought her name sounded like a delicatessen, "so he said, 'How about Gaynor, [like] Janet Gaynor?' My father loved it."

Her first major role was in "My Blue Heaven" (1950), starring Betty Grable and Dan Dailey. She quickly followed that with such lighthearted fare as "Down Among the Sweltering Palms," "We're Not Married," "Bloodhounds of Broadway," and "The I Don't Care Girl." She also starred in a western, "Three Young Texans." 

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