Gloria DeHaven obit

Gloria DeHaven Dies: Singer-Actress & Star Of MGM Musicals Was 91

She was not on the list.

Gloria DeHaven, one of the last surviving stars from Hollywood’s golden age who made her screen debut in Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times and went on to be featured in several hit MGM musicals and numerous TV roles, has died in Las Vegas. She was 91.

Born in 1925, DeHaven was the daughter of actor and director Carter DeHaven and actress Flora Parker DeHaven, former Vaudevillians who transitioned to film in the 1910s. Growing up in Los Angeles, she began her career with a bit part in 1936’s Modern Times, playing the younger sister of Paulette Goddard’s Gamin. Her next role came in 1940 with Susan and God, based on the successful play and starring Joan Crawford and Fredric March. She made three more films before being signed as a contract player with MGM, for which she appeared in several films alongside some of the biggest stars of the day.

Her first picture for MGM was the 1943 Lucille Ball musical comedy Best Foot Forward. Other films from her years with MGM include Thousands Cheer (1943) with Gene Kelly; Step Lively (1944) with Frank Sinatra; Summer Holiday (1948) with Mickey Rooney; The Doctor and the Girl (1949) with Glenn Ford and Nancy Reagan; and The Girl Rush (1955) with Rosalind Russell.

DeHaven notably portrayed her mother, Flora, in the 1950 film In Three Little Words, which tells the story of Tin Pan Alley songwriters Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby. Fred Astaire portrayed Kalmar in the film, with Red Skelton playing Ruby. DeHaven sang “Who’s Sorry Now?” in Three Little Words, which Astaire later said was one of his favorite films.

In addition to her acting career, DeHaven also worked as a singer in her own right, performing with Bob Crosby’s band and at one point hosting her own nightclub act, along with gigs in New York, Las Vegas, and London. In 1955 she debuted on Broadway, starring in the musical version of Seventh Heaven alongside Ricardo Montalban.

Later in her career, DeHaven moved to television, appearing as a regular on the soap operas Ryan’s Hope, As the World Turns, and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman as well as the short-lived police drama Nakia. She also guest starred on numerous other shows including Robert Montgomery Presents, Appointment with Adventure, Johnny Ringo, Marcus Welby, M.D., Gunsmoke, Hart to Hart, The Love Boat, Mama’s Family, Highway to Heaven, Murder, She Wrote and Touched by an Angel.

DeHaven continued to work sporadically in television and film through the 1990s with her final film role in the Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau comedy Out To Sea.

She was married four times, first to The Restless Gun star John Payne, from 1944-50. The couple had two children, daughter Kathleen Hope and son Thomas John Payne. Real estate developer Martin Kimmel was her second husband; they married in 1953 and divorced the next year. She was twice married to Richard Fincher, first from 1957-63 and again from 1965-69. They had two children, son Harry, and daughter Faith.

Filmography

Films

Year Title Role Notes

1936 Modern Times Gamin's sister Uncredited

1940 Susan and God Enid

Keeping Company Evelyn Thomas

1941 The Penalty Anne Logan

Two-Faced Woman Debutante in ladies' room Uncredited

1943 Best Foot Forward Minerva

Thousands Cheer Herself

1944 Broadway Rhythm Patsy Demming

Two Girls and a Sailor Jean Deyo

Step Lively Christine Marlowe

The Thin Man Goes Home Laurabelle Ronson

1945 Between Two Women Edna

1948 Summer Holiday Muriel McComber

1949 Scene of the Crime Lili

Yes Sir That's My Baby Sarah Jane Winfield

The Doctor and the Girl Fabienne Corday

1950 The Yellow Cab Man Ellen Goodrich

Three Little Words Mrs. Carter De Haven

Summer Stock Abigail Falbury

I'll Get By Terry Martin

1951 Two Tickets to Broadway Hannah Holbrook

1953 Down Among the Sheltering Palms Angela Toland

1954 So This Is Paris Colette d'Avril

1955 The Girl Rush Taffy Tremaine

1976 Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood President's girl 1

1978 Evening in Byzantium Sonia Murphy TV movie

1979 Bog Ginny Glenn

1984 Off Sides (Pigs vs. Freaks) Maureen Brockmeyer TV movie

1990 Ladies on Sweet Street Ruth

1994 Outlaws: The Legend of O.B. Taggart

1997 Out to Sea Vivian



Television

Year Title Role Notes

1951 The Alan Young Show

1956 The George Gobel Show December 8 episode

1959 The Further Adventures of Ellery Queen 1 episode

1959 The Rifleman Lillian Halstead Season 2, episode 6: "Eddie's Daughter"

1959 Johnny Ringo Ronna Desmond 1 episode

1960 Wagon Train Allison Justis 1 episode

1961 BBC Sunday-Night Play Shirley Kellogg 1 episode

1961 The Defenders Agnes A Season 1, episode 15: "Gideon's Follies"

1969 Mannix Gloria Newman Season 1, episode 3: "Nothing Ever Works Twice"

1972 The Jimmy Stewart Show Lucy Carruthers 1 episode

1974 Gunsmoke Carrie 1 episode

1974 Nakia Irene James 13 episodes

1975 Match Game Herself 1975 for one week

1975 Movin' On Janey 1 episode

1977 Quincy M.E. Doreen 1 episode

1976–1977 Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman Annie Wylie 30 episodes

1978 The Ted Knight Show Delores 1 episode (TV Mini-Series)

1978 Police Story Jill's Mother 1 episode

1978 The Eddie Capra Mysteries 1 episode

1979 Delta House Marion Wormer 2 episodes

1980 B.J. and the Bear Mama 1 episode

1980 Hello, Larry 1 episode

1981 Darkroom Louise Lawrence 1 episode

1978–1982 Fantasy Island Sophie / Mrs. Brennan 2 episodes

1982 Hart to Hart Reva 1 episode

1983 Falcon Crest Gloria Marlowe 1 episode

1983 Mama's Family Sally Nash Episode: "Positive Thinking"

1983–1985 Ryan's Hope Bess Shelby 14 episodes

1983–1986 The Love Boat Mary Halbert / Florence Dolan 2 episodes

1987 Highway to Heaven Phoebe Hall Season 3, episode 17: "A Mother and Daughter"

1987–1989 Murder, She Wrote Phyllis Grant 3 episodes

1993 All My Children Emma Mallory

2000      Touched by an Angel      Beverly 1 episode

Ken Barrie obit

Ken Barrie, the voice of Postman Pat, dies at the age of 83

 

He was not on the list.

Ken Barrie, the voice of children's TV show Postman Pat, has died at the age of 83.

Barrie, who was born Leslie Hulme, provided the voice for Pat and many of the other characters in the animated series, as well as the famous jingle.

His daughter Lorraine Peterson told the Press Association he died peacefully at home in Denham, Buckinghamshire of liver cancer.

Barrie also had a successful singing career, performing on an album with Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby and on jingles for Smash and Martini.

He was the master of different characters and voices. He was very reserved about what he did but he loved it and got to work with his heroes.

Lorraine Peterson

Barrie lent his voice to 31 episodes of Postman Pat between 1981 and 2005, as the narrator, the famous postman and other characters. He also worked on Postman Pat: Special Delivery Service in 2008.

He also appeared in TV drama Centre Play and Christmas Eve With Val Doonican and later topped the charts as part of Peter Kay's Animated All Star Band on the Official BBC Children in Need Medley in 2009.

 

Actor

Postman Pat: Special Delivery Service (2009)

Postman Pat: Special Delivery Service

Video Game

Postman Pat (voice)

2009

 

Postman Pat

Video Game

Postman Pat (voice)

2009

 

Richard Briers, Carole Boyd, Brian Cant, Hayley Carmichael, Bernard Cribbins, Maria Darling, Pui Fan Lee, Dominic Frisby, Kulvinder Ghir, John Gordon Sinclair, Kate Harbour, Mike Haley, Mark Heenehan, Jimmy Hibbert, Sean Hughes, Peter Kay, Jonathan Kydd, Ronnie Le Drew, Yuri Lowenthal, Lewis Macleod, Marcello Magni, Michael Maloney, Neil Morrissey, Oliver Postgate, Simon Shelton, Marc Silk, John Simmit, Roy Skelton, Nikky Smedley, Ringo Starr, Tim Whitnall, Rob Rackstraw, Brian Sandford, Brenda Longman, Keith Wickham, Tom Oldham, Malcolm Lord, Mark Mander, Steven Kynman, Janet James, Nick Kellington, Rebecca Hyland, Joanna Ruiz, Matthew Bloxham, Tegwen Tucker, David Carling, and Glenn Moore in Peter Kay's Animated All Star Band: The Official BBC Children in Need Medley (2009)

Peter Kay's Animated All Star Band: The Official BBC Children in Need Medley

8.2

Music Video

Ted Glen (voice)

2009

 

DaThings

TV Mini Series

Postman Tap (voice)

2009

 

Postman Pat: Special Delivery Service (2008)

Postman Pat: Special Delivery Service

4.9

TV Series

Ted Glen

Alf Thompson

Reverend Timms (voice) ...

2008

26 episodes

 

Melissa Sinden and Ken Barrie in Postman Pat (1981)

Postman Pat

6.4

TV Series

Alf Thompson

PC Selby

Ted Glen ...

1981–2008

108 episodes

 

Raccoon Racing (2008)

Raccoon Racing

Video Game

(voice)

2008

 

Postman Pat (2008)

Postman Pat

Video Game

Postman Pat (voice)

2008

 

Postman Pat: Greendale Fun

Video Game

Postman Pat (voice)

2008

 

Postman Pat and the Greendale Rocket (2006)

Postman Pat and the Greendale Rocket

Video Game

Postman Pat (uncredited)

2006

 

Postman Pat: PC game

Video Game

Postman Pat (voice)

2006

 

Making Children Smile (2006)

Making Children Smile

Video

(voice)

2006

 

Postman Pat's Magic Christmas (2004)

Postman Pat's Magic Christmas

7.2

TV Movie

Postman Pat

Ted Glen

Reverend Timms (voice) ...

2004

 

Postman Pat's Pirate Treasure

7.3

TV Movie

Postman Pat

Ted Glen

Alf Thompson (voice) ...

2004

 

Postman Pat: Activity Pack

Video Game

Postman Pat (voice)

2003

 

Calling All Toddlers 2 (2002)

Calling All Toddlers 2

Video

Narrator (segment: Postman Pat: Postman Pat has the Best Village)

2002

 

Postman Pat: Package of Fun

Video Game

Postman Pat (voice)

2002

 

Calling All Toddlers (1999)

Calling All Toddlers

Video

Narrator (segment: Postman Pat: Postman Pat and the Hole in the Road)

1999

 

M.U.G.E.N (1999)

M.U.G.E.N

Video Game

1999

 

Read Along with Postman Pat (1994)

Read Along with Postman Pat

Video

Narrator (voice)

1994

 

Postman Pat's ABC (1990)

Postman Pat's 123

Video

Narrator (voice)

1990

 

Postman Pat's ABC (1990)

Postman Pat's ABC

Video

Narrator (voice)

1990

 

Charlie Chalk (1988)

Charlie Chalk

7.3

TV Series

Narrator

Song Vocals (voice)

1988–1989

13 episodes

 

Su Pollard in Hi-de-Hi! (1980)

Hi-de-Hi!

6.7

TV Series

Narrator (uncredited)

1980–1988

58 episodes

 

Brian Blessed, Anthony Calf, Hannah Gordon, Sarah-Jane Holm, Darren Redmayne, and Guy Scantlebury in My Family and Other Animals (1987)

My Family and Other Animals

7.9

TV Mini Series

Whistling Narrator (voice)

1987

10 episodes

 

Ray Charles' World of Music

TV Movie

Singer

1979

 

Centre Play (1973)

Centre Play

7.7

TV Series

Singer

1976

1 episode

 

Applause (1973)

Applause

6.8

TV Movie

Bill Sampson (singing voice)

1973

 

The Great Waltz (1972)

The Great Waltz

5.1

Johann Strauss Jr. (singing voice, uncredited)

1972

 

Ian Bannen, George C. Scott, and Susannah York in Jane Eyre (1970)

Jane Eyre

6.4

Edward Rochester (singing voice)

1970

 

Music Department

Glenn Close, David Ogden Stiers, Cory Edwards, Bill Hader, Hayden Panettiere, Amy Poehler, and Patrick Warburton in Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil (2011)

Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil

4.7

vocalist: yodeler

2011

 

Melissa Sinden and Ken Barrie in Postman Pat (1981)

Postman Pat

6.4

TV Series

performer (uncredited)

1981–2006

111 episodes

 

Charlie Chalk (1988)

Charlie Chalk

7.3

TV Series

song vocals

1989

1 episode

 

Applause (1973)

Applause

6.8

TV Movie

singing voice: Larry Hagman (uncredited)

1973

 

Rosemarie Ford in Come Dancing (1949)

Come Dancing

5.4

TV Series

music

1968

1 episode

 

Soundtrack

Postman Pat: The Movie (2014)

Postman Pat: The Movie

4.7

performer: "Postman Pat"

2014

 

Copycats (2009)

Copycats

7.3

TV Series

performer: "Postman Pat"

2010

1 episode

 

What's Up Doc? (1992)

What's Up Doc?

6.7

TV Series

performer: "Theme from Postman Pat" (uncredited)

1995

1 episode

 

Hugh O'Conor in The Young Poisoner's Handbook (1995)

The Young Poisoner's Handbook

7.0

performer: "Oody-Doody Song (Dickie Boone Show Theme)" (uncredited)

1995

 

Rowan Atkinson in Mr. Bean (1990)

Mr. Bean

8.6

TV Series

performer: "Theme from Postman Pat" (uncredited)

1993

1 episode

 

The Silent Scream (1979)

The Silent Scream

5.8

Soundtrack ("I Love You Baby, Oh Baby I Do")

1979

 

Emily (1976)

Emily

4.5

performer: "Trash"

1976

 

Sharks' Treasure (1975)

Sharks' Treasure

4.8

performer: "Money, Money"

1975

Chief Bald Eagle obit

Dances with Wolves actor Chief David Bald Eagle dies at 97

He was not on the list.


Native American Chief David Bald Eagle, who appeared in the Oscar-winning 1990 film Dances With Wolves, has died aged 97.

The grandson of Chief White Bull, who fought in the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, Bald Eagle appeared in more than 40 films.

He went on to become the face of South Dakota's Lakota people.

He died at his home on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation on 22 July, according to a local funeral home.

Born in a tepee in 1919 on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Reservation, his native Lakota name translates as Wounded in Winter Beautiful Bald Eagle.

He served in the US Army during World War Two where he fought in the landings at Anzio in Italy and won the silver star.

After being severely wounded by German fire while parachuting into Normandy during D-Day, Bald Eagle pursued a music career as a drummer for Cliff Keyes Big Band.

Following a foray into ballroom dancing, which ended with the tragic death of his dance partner and wife, Penny Rathburn, in a car crash, Bald Eagle established a career in Hollywood.

He trained a range of stars including John Wayne in horse and gun handling, and served as Errol Flynn's stunt double.

In the late 1950s he joined a rodeo display team and while in Belgium met his second wife, Josee.

He continued to work as an actor and became the face of South Dakota's state tourism promotions for decades.

Outside of showbusiness, Bald Eagle's dedication to the Lakota people saw him elected as the first Chief of the United Native Nations in 2001, addressing indigenous people worldwide.

His last film role was in Neither Wolf Nor Dog, which premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival last month.

The film's director, Steven Lewis Simpson, praised Bald Eagle as "truly unique".

"His life was more extraordinary than of those that most great biographies are written about; the joys and the tragedies," he said.

"He was an astonishingly beautiful man. The sparkle from his eyes when he smiled or was being mischievous was a joy to behold."

Rooks Funeral Home in Eagle Butte said Bald Eagle's funeral is scheduled for 29 July at Black Hills National Cemetery in Sturgis, following a traditional four-day wake.

Michael J. Leeson obit

RIP "Cosby Show" co-creator/writer Michael Leeson ("The War of the Roses," "The Tuxedo"), who died on 7/27 at age 69 

He was not on the list.

Michael Leeson is producer and screenwriter who began his career with the romantic comedy "Love, American Style" in 1972. After that, his career took off. He wrote for a number of iconic '70s TV shows including: the family comedy "The Partridge Family," the classic sitcom "The Odd Couple," the nostalgia comedy "Happy Days." Then in 1975, he went from writing to producing on the "Mary Tyler Moore Show" spin-off, "Phyllis." He's gone on to serve as writer and producer on"The Associates" and the dark comedy "The War of the Roses" starring Michael Douglas. However, Leeson is best known for his part in the creation of the hit family comedy series "The Cosby Show." In 1985, he won his second Emmy for "The Cosby Show"'s premiere episode. He achieved his first Emmy win in 1981 for writing "Taxi"'s "Tony's Sister and Jim" episode. Leeson has had an illustrious career, and has even been nominated for an Oscar for penning the lyrics of "For Your Eyes Only," the theme song from the James Bond movie of the same name. From 2007 to 2009, Leeson served as a writer and producer on the comedy "The Bill Engvall Show."

 

Filmography

 

Love, American Style (1972–1973) (TV)

All in the Family (1973) (TV)

The Partridge Family (1973–1974) (TV)

The Odd Couple (1972–1974) (TV)

Happy Days (1974) (TV)

The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1975) (TV)

Phyllis (1975–1976) (TV)

Rhoda (1975–1976) (TV)

Mixed Nuts (1977) (TV)

Fast Lane Blues (1978) (TV)

The Associates (1979) (TV)

Taxi (1978–1980) (TV)

Best of the West (1981) (TV)

Jekyll and Hyde... Together Again (with Monica Johnson, Harvey Miller and Jerry Belson) (1982)

The Survivors (1983)

When Your Lover Leaves (1983) (TV)

The Tracey Ullman Show (1987) (TV)

I Married Dora (1987–1988) (TV)

The War of the Roses (1989)

Grand (1990) (TV)

Davis Rules (1992) (TV)

The Cosby Show (1984–1992) (TV)

I.Q. (with Andy Breckman) (1994)

What Planet Are You From? (with Garry Shandling) (2000)

The Tuxedo (2002)

Twenty Good Years (2006) (TV)

The Bill Engvall Show (2007–2009) (TV)

Tim LaHaye - # 137

Died: Tim LaHaye, Author Who 'Left Behind' a Long Legacy

He was number 137 on the list.

Tim LaHaye, the best-selling author best known for the Left Behind series, “graduated to heaven” early this morning after suffering a stroke at age 90.

His family announced the news of his passing at a San Diego hospital on his ministry Facebook page.

On the eve of his death, ministry partners, fans, and friends urgently asked for prayer on social media this weekend, offering a wave of early tributes that spread through end-times prophecy circles and chapters of Concerned Women for America (CWA), the 600,000-member public policy organization founded by LaHaye’s wife, Beverly. Some circulated a statement by LaHaye’s daughter Linda: “He will not recover from this, he will soon be graduated to heaven.”

“Tim was one of the most godly men I have ever known,” said David Jeremiah, LaHaye’s successor at the San Diego church he led for 25 years (then named Scott Memorial Baptist Church, now named Shadow Mountain Community Church). “Almost every conversation I had with him ended with his praying with me and for me. He wrote me extended letters of appreciation for what God was doing in our church. We shared long lunches together talking about ministry and praying for our nation.

“When I look back over [his] life, I am reminded of Paul’s words concerning King David: ‘He served his own generation by the will of God’ (Acts 13:36),” stated Jeremiah, senior pastor of Shadow Mountain and founder of Turning Point. “Tim’s ministry will continue for many years through the books he wrote, the organizations he founded, and the people that he influenced. But I will miss him when I look out from my pulpit next Sunday.”

“Whose life hasn't been affected in some way by this man?” wrote Prophecy Watchers, a two-year-old ministry based in Oklahoma City that announced the news of LaHaye’s stroke, describing him as a friend and supporter. “This is a great man of God and if the Lord takes him home, he leaves behind a wonderful legacy. In the words of Steve Green, ‘May all who come behind us find us faithful.’”

“Thrilled as I am that he is where he has always wanted to be, his departure leaves a void in my soul I don’t expect to fill until I see him again,” stated Jerry B. Jenkins, who co-wrote the Left Behind books with LaHaye, in the obituary released by the LaHaye family. [Jenkins wrote a tribute for CT on “the Tim LaHaye I knew.”]

The founder and president of Tim LaHaye Ministries and founder of the PreTrib Research Center, LaHaye sold 62 million copies of the series with Jenkins. “In terms of its impact on Christianity, it’s probably greater than that of any other book in modern times, outside the Bible,” the late Jerry Falwell, a friend of LaHaye’s, told Time magazine in 2005.

CT ranked Left Behind among the landmark titles that have shaped evangelicalism. LaHaye and Jenkins not only had readers rethinking the rapture, but also the potential popularity of Christian novels. “The book launched a series that launched a marketing empire that launched a new set of rules for Christian fiction. The series spent a total of 300 weeks—nearly as long as the Tribulation it dramatized—on The New York Times's bestseller list.”

The series, whose first title released 21 years ago this month, still sells in the six figures annually, according to Jenkins.

“Tim LaHaye’s history as a published author is intertwined with the entire history of Tyndale House,” stated Mark D. Taylor, chairman and CEO of Tyndale House Publishers. “His first book, Spirit-Controlled Temperament, was published 50 years ago in 1966. It was the very first book published by Tyndale House apart from the Living series of Bible paraphrases. And Tyndale’s highest-selling series of trade titles has been the Left Behind series. ... Tim was a wonderful Bible teacher and pastor and an inspiration for our entire industry. We will miss him.”

“It was LaHaye's idea to fictionalize an account of the Rapture and the Tribulation,” according to his bio on the official Left Behind website. It notes:

LaHaye originated the idea of a novel about the Second Coming. "Sitting on airplanes and watching the pilots," he told People magazine, "I'd think to myself, 'What if the Rapture occurred on an airplane?'" LaHaye looked for a co-writer for several years and was then introduced to Jerry B. Jenkins through their mutual agent, Rick Christian, president of the Colorado Springs literary agency, Alive Communications, who also negotiated the book deal.

 “Writing the Left Behind novel series for him and traveling with him all over the country to promote it, I saw the softer side of a man known for strong opinions and polemic views,” stated Jenkins. “The Tim LaHaye I got to know had a pastor’s heart and lived to share his faith. He listened to and cared about everyone, regardless of age, gender, or social standing. If Tim was missing from the autograph table or the green room of a network television show, he was likely in a corner praying with someone he’d just met—from a reader to a part-time bookstore stock clerk to a TV network anchorman.”

Earlier this month, LaHaye publicly celebrated his 69th wedding anniversary with his wife. Time magazine labeled the pair “the Christian Power Couple” in 2005, listing them among the country's most influential evangelicals. “[Beverly] has been my faithful partner in marriage, parenthood, ministry, and many things we never dreamed. We are still in love today!” he wrote. “God has been faithful to us and we continue to claim as our life verse, Proverbs 3:5 & 6, ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.’”

His ministry bio notes:

He also founded two accredited Christian high schools, a school system of 10 Christian schools, San Diego Christian College (formerly Christian Heritage College), and assisted Dr. Henry Morris in the founding of the Institute for Creation Research, the nation's foremost exponent of creationist materials.

LaHaye has written more than 60 non-fiction books on a wide range of subjects such as: family life, temperaments, sexual adjustment, Bible prophecy, the will of God, Jesus Christ, and secular humanism with over 14 million in print, some of which have been translated into 32 foreign languages. His writings are best noted for their easy-to-understand and scripturally based application of biblical principles that assist in facing and handling the challenges of life.

His ministry obituary notes:

During the 1970s Dr. LaHaye was instrumental in gathering a coalition of Southern California pastors together to address a progressive agenda that was undermining traditional family values. Also in the ’70s he encouraged the late Jerry Falwell Sr. to establish the Moral Majority as a way to build a similar coalition nationally. He was also widely credited with garnering evangelical support behind the campaign of George W. Bush.

A Bob Jones University alumnus, LaHaye received a Doctor of Ministry degree from Western Theological Seminary and a Doctor of Literature degree from Liberty University. He and his wife lived in Southern California and have 4 children, 9 grandchildren, and 16 great-grandchildren.

Marni Nixon obit

Marni Nixon, the Singing Voice Behind the Screen, Dies at 86

She was not on the list.

Marni Nixon, the American cinema’s most unsung singer, died on Sunday in Manhattan. She was 86.

The cause was breast cancer, said Randy Banner, a student and friend. Ms. Nixon, a California native, had lived in Manhattan, on the Upper West Side, for more than 40 years.

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.

Her other covert outings included singing for Jeanne Crain in “Cheaper by the Dozen,” Janet Leigh in “Pepe” and Ida Lupino in “Jennifer.” “The ghostess with the mostest,” the newspapers called her, a description that eventually began to rankle.

Before her Hollywood days and long afterward, Ms. Nixon was an acclaimed concert singer, a specialist in contemporary music who appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic; a recitalist at Carnegie, Alice Tully and Town Halls in New York; and a featured singer on one of Leonard Bernstein’s televised young people’s concerts.

Her concerts and her many recordings — including works by Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Webern, Ives, Copland, Gershwin and Kern — drew wide critical praise. Yet as late as 1990, decades after Ms. Nixon had made good on her vow to perform only as herself, she remained, in the words of The Los Angeles Times, “the best known of the ghost singers.”

At midcentury, Hollywood was more inclined to cast bankable stars than trained singers in films that called for singing. As a result, generations of Americans have grown accustomed to Ms. Nixon’s voice, if not her face, in standards like “Getting to Know You,” from “The King and I”; “I Feel Pretty,” from “West Side Story”; and “I Could Have Danced All Night,” from “My Fair Lady.”

Ms. 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.

 “You always had to sign a contract that nothing would be revealed,” Ms. Nixon told the ABC News program “Nightline” in 2007. “Twentieth Century Fox, when I did ‘The King and I,’ threatened me.” She continued, “They said, if anybody ever knows that you did any part of the dubbing for Deborah Kerr, we’ll see to it that you don’t work in town again.”

Though Ms. Nixon honored the bargain, her work soon became one of Hollywood’s worst-kept secrets. She became something of a cult figure, appearing as a guest on “To Tell the Truth” and as an answer to clues featured by “Jeopardy!,” Trivial Pursuit and at least one New York Times crossword puzzle.

Her increasing renown helped bring her spectral trade into the light and encouraged her to push for official recognition. “The anonymity didn’t bother me until I sang Natalie Wood’s songs in ‘West Side Story,’ ” Ms. Nixon told The Times in 1967. “Then I saw how important my singing was to the picture. I was giving my talent, and somebody else was taking the credit.”

Although the studios seldom accorded Ms. Nixon the screen credit and royalties that she began to demand, both became customary for ghost singers.

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 most of the rest of the number, “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.”)

It was a decidedly peculiar calling — and not one on which Ms. Nixon had ever planned — entailing not so much imitating actors as embodying them.

“It’s fascinating, getting inside the actresses you’re singing for,” she told The New York Journal-American in 1964. “It’s like cutting off the top of their heads and seeing what’s underneath. You have to know how they feel, as well as how they talk, in order to sing as they would sing — if they could sing.”

Marni Nixon and Dick Latessa in the Encores! production of the musical “Music in the Air” at City Center in 2009. Credit Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

Over time, however, Ms. Nixon came to regard her spectacular mimetic gift as more curse than blessing. For despite her myriad accomplishments as a singer of art songs, she was obliged to spend years exorcising her ghostly cinematic presence.

“It got so I’d lent my voice to so many others that I felt it no longer belonged to me,” she told The Times in 1981. “It was eerie; I had lost part of myself.”

A petite, fine-boned woman who resembled Julie Andrews, Ms. Nixon was born Margaret Nixon McEathron on Feb. 22, 1930, in Altadena, Calif., near Los Angeles.

She began studying the violin at 4 and throughout her childhood played bit parts — “the freckle-faced brat,” she called her typical role — in a string of Hollywood movies. At 11, already possessed of a fine singing voice, she won a vocal competition at the Los Angeles County Fair and found her true calling. She became a private pupil of Vera Schwarz, a distinguished Austrian soprano who had settled in the United States.

At 17, Ms. Nixon appeared as a vocal soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Leopold Stokowski, singing in Orff’s “Carmina Burana.” She later studied opera at Tanglewood with Sarah Caldwell and Boris Goldovsky.

During her teenage years, Ms. Nixon worked as a messenger at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Knowing of her musical ability — she had perfect pitch and was an impeccable sight reader — the studio began recruiting her to furnish the singing voices of young actresses. The work helped pay for Ms. Nixon’s voice lessons.

Her first significant dubbing job was singing a Hindu lullaby for Margaret O’Brien in “The Secret Garden,” released in 1949.

Ms. Nixon did occasionally take center stage, as when she played Eliza Doolittle in a 1964 revival of “My Fair Lady” at City Center in New York. (Ms. Andrews had played the part in the original Broadway production, which opened in 1956.) In 1965, Ms. Nixon was seen on camera in a small role as a singing nun in “The Sound of Music,” starring Ms. Andrews.

On Broadway, Ms. Nixon appeared in the Sigmund Romberg musical “The Girl in Pink Tights” in 1954 and, more recently, in the musical drama “James Joyce’s ‘The Dead’ ” (2000), the 2001 revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “Follies” and the 2003 revival of “Nine.”

Ms. Nixon’s first marriage, to Ernest Gold, a film composer who won an Oscar for the 1960 film “Exodus,” ended in divorce, as did her second, to Lajos Frederick Fenster. Her third husband, Albert Block, died in 2015.

Survivors include her daughters from her first marriage, Martha Carr and Melani Gold Friedman; her sisters Donyl Mern Aleman, Adair McEathron Jenkins and Ariel Lea Witbeck; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. A son from her first marriage, Andrew Gold, a popular songwriter whose hit “Thank You for Being a Friend” became the theme of the NBC sitcom “The Golden Girls,” died in 2011 at 59.

Ms. Nixon’s other onscreen credits include “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” In the 1970s and ’80s, she was the host of “Boomerang,” a popular children’s television show in Seattle, where she had made her home for some years before moving to Manhattan.

She also supplied the singing voice of Grandmother Fa in Disney’s animated film “Mulan,” released in 1998. (The character’s spoken dialogue was voiced by the actress June Foray.) She taught for many years at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, where she was the founding director of the vocal department.

But it was her work as a ghost that is enshrined forever in the cinematic canon: “West Side Story” won the Oscar for best picture of 1961; “My Fair Lady” won for 1964. Both films remain perennials on television.

Ms. Nixon, who continued singing until she was in her 80s, eventually came to regard her heard-but-not-seen life with affection. She paid it homage in a one-woman show, “Marni Nixon: The Voice of Hollywood,” with which she toured the country for years.

She did likewise in a memoir, “I Could Have Sung All Night,” published in 2006. (The memoir was written with a ghost, Stephen Cole, whom Ms. Nixon credited prominently on the cover and the title page.)

In the few movie musicals made today, directors tend to cast actors who are trained singers (like Meryl Streep in “Into the Woods”) or those whose star power mitigates the fact that they are not (like Helena Bonham Carter in “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”).

What this means is that the ghost singers who were once a Hollywood mainstay have now, for the most part, become ghosts themselves.

Filmography

Film

Year       Title       Role       Notes

1942      The Bashful Bachelor      Angela Abernathy           

1950      Cinderella            Narrator (vocals)              Song: "Cinderella" (uncredited)

1951      Alice in Wonderland       Singing Flowers (vocals)                 Uncredited

1953      Gentlemen Prefer Blondes           Lorelei Lee (vocals)          Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend [high notes] (uncredited)

1956      The King and I    Anna Leonowens (vocals)             4 songs (uncredited)

1956      Dance with Me, Henry   Vocals   Song: "Libiamo ne' lieti calici"

1957      An Affair to Remember Terry McKay (vocals)       3 songs (uncredited)

1961      West Side Story                 Maria Nunez (vocals)      7 songs (uncredited)

1964      Mary Poppins    Geese (vocals)   Uncredited

1964      My Fair Lady       Eliza Doolittle (vocals)    10 songs (uncredited)

1965      The Sound of Music         Sister Sophia      Song: "Maria"

1997      I Think I Do          Aunt Alice           

1998      Mulan   Grandmother Fa (vocals)               Song: "Honor to Us All" (uncredited)

Television

Year       Title       Role       Notes

1967      Jack and the Beanstalk   Princess Serena (vocals)                Telefilm; various songs

1969      The Mothers-in-Law       Herself Episode: "The Not-So-Grand Opera"

1977–1981          Boomerang         Herself KOMO-TV, Seattle

1984      Taking My Turn Edna      Movie

2001      Law & Order: Special Victims Unit             Edna Dumas       Episode: "Redemption"