RIP Mitzi Gaynor

 

Mitzi Gaynor, Legendary South Pacific Actress, Dies at 93: An 'Altogether Glorious Human Being'

The actress also starred in a series of Emmy-winning TV specials

People

By Victoria Edel

October 17, 2024

 

Mitzi Gaynor has died at the age of 93, her management team announced in a statement on Thursday, Oct. 17.

The actress was best known for her roles in movie musicals in the 1950s, most notably 1958’s South Pacific. She also starred in a series of Emmy-winning TV specials.

"It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved friend and client Mitzi Gaynor. She passed away peacefully today of natural causes at the age of 93," Rene Reyes and Shane Rosamonda wrote on social media.

"For eight decades she entertained audiences in films, on television and on the stage," they continued. "She truly enjoyed every moment of her professional career and the great privilege of being an entertainer."

Reyes and Rosamonda called Gaynor a "vibrant and extraordinary woman, a caring and loyal friend, and a warm, gracious, very funny and altogether glorious human being. And she could cook, too!"

"... She often noted that her audiences were 'the sunshine of my life.' You truly were," they wrote.

Gaynor was born Francesca Marlene de Czanyi von Gerber in Chicago in 1931. Her father was a musician, and her mother was a dancer. She soon followed in her mother’s footsteps, training as a ballerina, and she was determined to make it as a star from a young age.

“My family was very supportive,” she remembered to Closer in 2024. “My family gave me every opportunity to experience theater, music and art. What a gift that was! We weren’t wealthy in monetary terms, but we were certainly wealthy in love.”

She told CBS in 2019 that when she was 11 years old and living in Detroit, a dance teacher said, “Mitzi's gonna go to Hollywood and become a star.” So their family moved out to Los Angeles to give her a shot. She was 17 when her dancing was noticed by execs at 20th Century Fox, who signed her to a seven-year contract. They didn’t like the name Mitzi Gerber, so they changed her last name to Gaynor.

Her debut came in 1950’s My Blue Heaven, a musical. She also had a supporting role in 1951’s Take Care of My Little Girl. Her first starring role came in the 1951 musical Golden Girl. Her biggest success at Fox was 1954’s There's No Business Like Show Business, in which she appeared alongside Ethel Merman, Marilyn Monroe and Donald O'Connor. She told Closer that she became “lifelong friends” with Merman and O’Connor during filming.

That same year, she married Jack Bean, who became her manager. Remembering how they met, she told CBS, "The doorbell rang at the Chateau Marmont. And I open up the door, and there's this man standing there. He has the bluest eyes I've ever seen in my life, he's about 5'11". God, I loved him." They were together until his death in 2006.

In 1956, she starred in the musical Anything Goes with Bing Crosby and O’Connor; decades later she would star in the national tour of the musical as well. She also appeared in 1956’s The Birds and the Bees and 1957's The Joker Is Wild (with Frank Sinatra) and Les Girls (with Gene Kelly).

Her biggest success came in 1958’s South Pacific, based on the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical of the same name. She starred as the lead, Nellie Forbush, and performed songs like “I'm in Love with a Wonderful Guy” and "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair.”

The role was hotly contested, with Elizabeth Taylor and Doris Day also vying for the part. Gaynor told the TV Foundation in 2012 that she felt she won out because she was happy to audition for the role, while others didn’t want to test for it.

South Pacific became the highest-grossing film of the year, and Gaynor received a Golden Globe nomination for the role.

Gaynor’s last film appearance came in 1963 (in For Love or Money with Kirk Douglas) and she began to focus on television. Between 1967 and 1978 she starred in eight TV specials that showed off her singing and dancing with huge, fabulous production numbers. She always wore four-inch heels during the shows. “My legs looked better in very high heels," she told Entertainment Weekly in 2021.

Her specials won six Emmys with 17 nominations and were also the subject of the 2008 documentary Mitzi Gaynor: Razzle Dazzle! The Special Years. Reflecting on the specials in 2016, she told getTV, “I was so blessed to have worked with such incredible, talented and wonderful people, and also to perform for audiences whom I adore. Plus my husband produced all of these shows so most of these are the happiest times of my life.”

Gaynor was also a frequent guest on other TV variety shows. She appeared multiple times on The Donald O’Connor Show, The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson as well as specials starring Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra and Danny Thomas.

One of her appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show coincided with The Beatles’ second appearance on the talk show in 1964, filmed in Miami Beach. She had top-billing on the episode, and after the taping, Paul McCartney asked for her autograph.

“I loved them,” she told East Bay Times in 2009. “They were divine. They were gentlemen, they were sweet… and it was nice to be part of history.”

Gaynor, who received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, also began performing in concerts beginning with a 1961 show in Las Vegas. Her early costumer for her shows was Bob Mackie, whose legendary career was just getting started. She told the Los Angeles Times in 1993 that she “just about fainted” the first time she saw his sketches, but he was so young at the time she initially mistook him for a fan.

Gaynor performed on stage for over five decades and felt most comfortable when she was in front of a crowd. “Home life is just fine, but I go on tour to get my rest,” she told The New York Times in 1982, during a 28-city tour.

GAYNOR, Mitzi (Francesca Marlene de Czanyi von Gerber)

Born: 9/4/1931, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

Died: 10/17/2024, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

 

Mitzi Gaynor’s westerns – actress, singer:

Golden Girl – 1951 (Lotta Crabtree) [singer]

Three Young Texans – 1954 (Rusty Blair)