Mitzi Gaynor

At 92 years old, Mitzi Gaynor has this physical status:

Career

At age 17, she committed to Twentieth Century-Fox for seven years. She performed, performed, and danced in a number of film musicals, often partnering with some of the day's biggest male vocal stars. Mitzi Gerber sounded like a delicatessen's name, according to a Fox Studio executive, who came up with a name that used the same initials.

My Blue Heaven (1950), Gaynor's debut in a musical, was directed by Betty Grable and Dan Dailey, who also appeared in a supporting role. Take Care of My Little Girl (1951) A college drama The mother of Jeanne Crain's roommate, Gaynor, will appear.

In the musical biopic Golden Girl (1951), Fox also gave Gaynor a film role, as she appeared on Lotta Crabtree. It was a marginal success at the box office. Gaynor was one of many actors in the anthology film We're Not Married! (1952), then she was top billed in the musical, Bloodhounds of Broadway (1952), which made $2 million (equivalent to $20.41 million in 20021).

In another biopic, The I Don't Care Girl (1952), Fox brought her an actress to life, Eva Tanguay. The film earned $1.25 million. Gaynor appeared in Down Among the Sheltering Palms (1953), portraying a South Sea island girl. She was the female protagonist in a Western, Three Young Texans (1954). Irving Berlin's There's No Business Like Show Business (1954), Gaynor's most popular film in her time at Fox was "There's No Business Like Show Business (1954). Since Ethel Merman, Dan Dailey, Marilyn Monroe, Donald O'Connor, and Johnnie Ray, she was billed.

On November 18, 1954, Gaynor married Jack Bean, a MCA recruit agent and public relations executive, in San Francisco. They lived on North Arden Drive in Beverly Hills, California. She was just released from Twentieth Century-Fox (before the show began) with four years left on her deal, and she had decided to marry when it came. The union was childless. Bean and Rose, MCA's former husband, left MCA and started Bean & Rose, and oversaw Gaynor's career after his marriage.

Gaynor appeared in Anything Goes in 1956, co-starring Bing Crosby, Donald O'Connor, and Zizi Jeanmaire, a loosely based on Cole Porter's P.G.'s musical. Wodehouse and Guy Bolton. In another remake, The Birds and the Bees (1956), Paramount portrayed Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve (1941). The Joker Is Wild (1957), a biopic of Joe E. Lewis starring Frank Sinatra, in which Gaynor played the female lead, was her third film for Paramount. Gaynor appeared in Les Girls, directed by George Cukor, with Gene Kelly and Kay Kendall in 1957.

Ensign Nellie Forbush's film adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific gained her most international success. She was selected for the Best Actress Golden Globe Award for her appearance.

Gaynor performed this at MGM, Happy Anniversary (1959) opposite David Niven, and the United Kingdom's Surprise Package (1960), a musical comedy drama directed by Stanley Donen, followed this. Yul Brynner and Nol Coward co-starred. Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn, composers of the film's theme tune, produced music and lyrics, respectively. In a duet with Nol Coward, Gaynor performed this song in the film. Kirk Douglas appeared in For Love or Money (1963), her first film role.

Gaynor appeared in other media after her film work. On February 16, 1964, she appeared in two sets by The Beatles. She appeared on a nine-minute segment from the stage of the Deauville Hotel in Miami Beach, separated by one commercial break. She performed "Too Darn Hot" and a blues medley, as well as a blues medley. Georgy Girl performed the theme at the 1967 Academy Awards ceremony. Gaynor then increased the number to her concert repertoire. She appeared in nine television specials that gained 16 Emmy nominations through the 1960s and 1970s.

Gaynor rehearsed and revived her routines at The Cave, a Vancouver club. She became a local celebrity and made regular appearances on local television for interviews. When Gaynor came to the city for a few weeks each year to establish her Las Vegas routines, "Mitzi's back in town."

Gaynor released two albums for Verve Records, one called Mitzi and the second, Mitzi Gaynor Sings the Lyrics of Ira Gershwin. She is said to have more from her record royalties on the South Pacific soundtrack album than she has earned on the film. She also recorded the title track from her film Happy Anniversary for the Top Rank label. Gaynor performed regularly in Las Vegas and at nightclub and concert venues throughout the United States and Canada for many decades.

Gaynor made a name for herself in the 1990s as a featured columnist for the newspaper The Hollywood Reporter.

Jack Bean, Gaynor's husband of 52 years, died of pneumonia in the couple's Beverly Hills home on December 4, 2006. Bean, a producer and personal manager, aided Gaynor's career.

Gaynor, along with Kenny Ortega, Elizabeth Berkley, Shirley MacLaine, and the cast members from High School Musical, So You Think You Can Dance, Dancing with the Stars, and other performers appeared on the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences on July 30, 2008. Gaynor appeared in the final few bars of "Poor Papa," a song-and-dance number from her 1969 TV special, Mitzi's 2nd Special. Mitzi Gaynor Razzle Dazzle: The Special Years, a film starring Gaynor's annual television specials of the 1960s and 1970s, was released four months later, on November 18, 2008. Bob Mackie, Carl Reiner, Kristin Chenoweth, Rex Reed, Kristin Chenoweth, Thomas McCarthy, Brett Ruff, Randy Doney, and Kelli O'Hara were among the original specials, which were broadcast on public television and released on DVD, as well as newly taped interviews with Gaynor colleagues, acquaintances, and admirers, including Bob Mackie, Carl Reiner, Kristin Chenoweth, Kristin Chenowe Razzle Dazzle: My Life Behind the Sequins, Gaynor's One-woman exhibition, toured the United States and Vancouver from 2009 to 2014, with a two-week presence in New York City.

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