Family Card - Person Sheet
NameMarni McEathron 
Birth22 Feb 1930
Spouses
Birth13 Jul 1921
Death17 Mar 1999
FatherGustav Goldner (1889-)
MotherElisabeth Stransky (~1897-1935)
Marriage1950
Divorce1969
Notes for Marni McEathron
{geni:occupation} Singer , actress
{geni:about_me} She is an American soprano renowned for being a playback singer for featured actresses in well known movie musicals. This has earned her the sobriquet "The Ghostess with the Mostess", and also "The Voice of Hollywood". She has also spent much of her career performing in concerts with major symphony orchestras around the world and in operas and musicals throughout the United States.
Born Margaret McEathron in Altadena, California, Nixon began singing at an early age in choruses. At the age of 14, she became part of the newly formed Los Angeles Concert Youth Chorus – whose other members included a 13-year-oldMarilyn Horne and a 19-year-old Paul Salamunovich, among many others – under famed conductor Roger Wagner; this choir evolved into the Roger Wagner Chorale in 1948, and later into the Los Angeles Master Chorale in 1964.
She went on to study singing and opera with Carl Ebert, Jan Popper, Boris Goldovsky and Sarah Caldwell. She embarked on a varied career, involving film and musical comedy as well as opera and concerts. She appeared extensively onAmerican television, dubbed the singing voices of film actresses in The King and I, West Side Story and My Fair Lady, and acted in several commercial stage ventures. Her light, flexible, wide-ranging soprano and uncanny accuracy and musicianship have made her valuable in more classical ventures, and have contributed to her success in works by Anton Webern, Igor Stravinsky, Charles Ives, Paul Hindemith and Alexander Goehr, many of which she has recorded.
Nixon's opera repertory includes Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, both Blonde and Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Violetta in La traviata, the title role in La Périchole and Philine in Mignon. Her opera credits include performances at Los Angeles Opera, Seattle Opera, San Francisco Opera and the Tanglewood Festival among others. In addition to giving recitals, she appeared with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra among others. She taught at the California Institute ofArts from 1969–1971 and joined the faculty of the Music Academy of the West, Santa Barbara, in 1980 where she taught for many years.
Career highlights:
Nixon's dubbing career includes:
* The voices of the angels heard by Ingrid Bergman in Joan of Arc (1948)
* The singing voice of Margaret O'Brien in The Secret Garden (1949)
* Providing Marilyn Monroe with a few top notes in her performance of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
* An eerie vocalise (wordless vocal) as part of George Antheil's score for Dementia (1955)
* The singing voice for Deborah Kerr in the film of Rodgers & Hammerstein's The King and I (1956) (in one song — "Shall I tell you what I think of you?" — Kerr's and Nixon's voices were skillfully intertwined; this was deletedfrom the film before its release, but it was retained on the soundtrack cast recording; Deborah Kerr also provides the spoken words at the beginning of "Getting to know you").
* Dubbing Deborah Kerr's singing voice again in An Affair to Remember, one year after dubbing her in The King and I
* The singing voice for Natalie Wood as Maria in West Side Story (1961). Nixon also sang some parts of the score of Anita played by Rita Moreno, sharing the load with co-dubber Betty Wand and Moreno herself. In parts of the quintet setting of the song "Tonight", she sings both Maria and Anita's lines, according to her autobiography.
* The singing voice for Audrey Hepburn as Eliza in My Fair Lady (1964). In the finished film the only remaining singing vocals by Audrey Hepburn herself are the lower verse vocals in the song Just You Wait, the line "Sleep, sleep, I couldn't sleep tonight" in I Could Have Danced All Night and Just You Wait (reprise).
Except for Dementia, in which she received on-screen credit as "Featured Voice", the credits for her many dubbing roles did not appear on the titles of any of the films, and Nixon did not begin to be fully credited or widely acknowledged until the movies' subsequent release on VHS decades later.
The Sound of Music:
Nixon appeared on screen singing for herself as Sister Sophia in the film The Sound of Music, cast in the role by director Robert Wise. In the DVD commentary to the film, he comments that audiences were finally able to see the woman whose voice they knew so well.
Later work:
When Hollywood musicals gave her less work, she started to perform on stage, as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady and as Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, she hosted a children's television show in Seattle on KOMO-TV channel 4 called Boomerang. In 2001, she replaced Joan Roberts as Heidi Schiller in the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies. In 2003, she returned to Broadway as a replacement in role of Guido's motherin the revival of Nine.
In the 1998 Disney film Mulan, Nixon sang the role of Grandmother Fa.
In March 2007 she was involved in a concert version of My Fair Lady, in which she performed the non-singing role of Mrs. Higgins, Professor Higgins's mother.
On June 18, 2007, Marni joined a group of volunteers who were inspired by the documentary film "Tocar y Luchar."They are trying to bring more music education to all children.
Nixon performed on the U.S. National Tour of Cameron Mackintosh's U.K. revival of My Fair Lady through July 2008, replacing Sally Ann Howes in the role of Mrs. Higgins.
Under her own name, she has also recorded songs by Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Arnold Schönberg, Charles Ives, and Anton Webern.
One of her three husbands, Ernest Gold, composed the theme song to the movie Exodus. They had three children together, one of whom is the singer and songwriter Andrew Gold ("Lonely Boy" and "Thank You For Being a Friend").
On October 27, 2008, Marni Nixon was presented with the Singer Symposium's Distinguished Artist Award in New York City.
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marni_Nixon
IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0633262/
IBDB: http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=76317
--------------------
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marni_Nixon
Marni Nixon (born February 22, 1930) is an American soprano renowned for being a playback singer for featured actresses in well known movie musicals. This has earned her the sobriquet "The Ghostess with the Mostess", and "The Voice of Hollywood".[1] She has also spent much of her career performing in concerts with major symphony orchestras around the world and in operas and musicals throughout the United States.
Contents [show]
[edit]Biography
Born Margaret McEathron in Altadena, California, Nixon began singing at an early age in choruses. At the age of 14, she became part of the newly formed Los Angeles Concert Youth Chorus – whose other members included a 13-year-oldMarilyn Horne and a 19-year-old Paul Salamunovich, among many others – under famed conductor Roger Wagner; this choir evolved into the Roger Wagner Chorale in 1948, and later into the Los Angeles Master Chorale in 1964.
She went on to study singing and opera with Carl Ebert, Jan Popper, Boris Goldovsky and Sarah Caldwell. She embarked on a varied career, involving film and musical comedy as well as opera and concerts. She appeared extensively onAmerican television, dubbed the singing voices of film actresses in The King and I, West Side Story and My Fair Lady, and acted in several commercial stage ventures. Her light, flexible, wide-ranging soprano and uncanny accuracy and musicianship have made her valuable in more classical ventures, and have contributed to her success in works by Anton Webern, Igor Stravinsky, Charles Ives, Paul Hindemith and Alexander Goehr, many of which she has recorded.
Nixon's opera repertory includes Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, both Blonde and Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Violetta in La traviata, the title role in La Périchole and Philine in Mignon. Her opera credits include performances at Los Angeles Opera, Seattle Opera, San Francisco Opera and the Tanglewood Festival among others. In addition to giving recitals, she appeared with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra among others. She taught at the California Institute of Arts from 1969–1971 and joined the faculty of the Music Academy of the West, Santa Barbara, in 1980 where she taught for many years.[2]
Nixon's autobiography, I Could Have Sung All Night, was published by Billboard Books in 2006.
[edit]Career highlights
Nixon's dubbing career includes:[3]
The voices of the angels heard by Ingrid Bergman in Joan of Arc (1948).
The singing voice for Margaret O'Brien in The Secret Garden (1949).
Providing Marilyn Monroe with a few top notes in her performance of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953).
An eerie vocalise (wordless vocal) as part of George Antheil's score for Dementia (1955).
The singing voice for Deborah Kerr in the film of Rodgers & Hammerstein's The King and I (1956) (in one song — "Shall I tell you what I think of you?" — Kerr's and Nixon's voices were skilfully intertwined; this was deleted from the film before its release, but it was retained on the soundtrack cast recording; Deborah Kerr also provides the spoken words at the beginning of "Getting to know you").
Dubbing Deborah Kerr's singing voice again in An Affair to Remember, one year after dubbing her in The King and I.
The singing voice for Natalie Wood as Maria in West Side Story (1961). Nixon also sang some parts of the score of Anita played by Rita Moreno, sharing the load with co-dubber Betty Wand and Moreno herself. In parts of the quintetsetting of the song "Tonight", she sings both Maria and Anita's lines, according to her autobiography.
The singing voice for Audrey Hepburn as Eliza in My Fair Lady (1964). In the finished film, the only remaining singing vocals by Audrey Hepburn herself are a section of the song "Just You Wait", one line in the song "I Could HaveDanced All Night" – "Sleep, sleep, I couldn't sleep tonight", and "Just You Wait" (reprise).
Except for Dementia, in which she received on-screen credit as "Featured Voice", the credits for her many dubbing roles did not appear on the titles of any of the films, and Nixon did not begin to be fully credited or widely acknowledged until the movies' subsequent release on VHS decades later.
[edit]The Sound of Music
Nixon appeared on screen first telling her opinion to the nuns about Maria and then singing for herself as Sister Sophia in the film The Sound of Music, cast in the role by director Robert Wise. In the DVD commentary to the film,he comments that audiences were finally able to see the woman whose voice they knew so well.
[edit]Later work
When Hollywood musicals gave her less work, she started to perform on stage, as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady and as Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, she hosted a children's television show in Seattle on KOMO-TV channel 4 called Boomerang. In 2001, she replaced Joan Roberts as Heidi Schiller in the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies. In 2003, she returned to Broadway as a replacement in role of Guido's motherin the revival of Nine.
In the 1998 Disney film Mulan, Nixon sang the role of Grandmother Fa.
In March 2007 she was involved in a concert version of My Fair Lady, in which she performed the non-singing role of Mrs. Higgins, Professor Higgins's mother.
On June 18, 2007, Marni joined a group of volunteers who were inspired by the documentary film "Tocar y Luchar."[1] They are trying to bring more music education to all children.[2]
Nixon performed on the U.S. National Tour of Cameron Mackintosh's U.K. revival of My Fair Lady through July 2008, replacing Sally Ann Howes in the role of Mrs. Higgins.
Under her own name, she has also recorded songs by Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Arnold Schönberg, Charles Ives, and Anton Webern.
The first of her three husbands, Ernest Gold, composed the theme song to the movie Exodus. They had three children together, one of whom is the singer and songwriter Andrew Gold ("Lonely Boy" and "Thank You For Being a Friend").
On October 27, 2008, Marni Nixon was presented with the Singer Symposium's Distinguished Artist Award in New York City.
[edit]Notes
^ Biography of Marni Nixon at curtainup.com
^ Bernheimer: "Marni Nixon", Grove Music Online
^ Lawson, Kyle. "Marni Nixon in My Fair Lady", The Arizona Republic, June 10, 2008
[edit]Sources
Nixon, Marni, with Cole, Stephen. I Could Have Sung All Night: My Story. New York, Billboard Books. 2006. ISBN 0-8230-8365-9.
Martin Bernheimer: "Marni Nixon", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed September 22, 2008), (subscription access)
Internet Movie Database
--------------------
Marni Nixon (born February 22, 1930) is an American soprano and playback singer for featured actresses in movie musicals. She is most famous for dubbing the singing voices of the leading actresses in films, including The King andI, West Side Story, and My Fair Lady.
Nixon's varied career has included, besides her voice work in films, some film roles of her own, television, opera, concerts with major symphony orchestras around the world, musicals on stage throughout the United States and recordings.
Born Margaret Nixon McEathron in Altadena, California, to Charles Nixon and Margaret Elsa (née Wittke) McEathron, Nixon was a child actress and also began singing at an early age in choruses, including performing solos with the Roger Wagner Chorale.[1]
She went on to study singing and opera with Thomas Noble MacBurney, Carl Ebert, Jan Popper, Boris Goldovsky and Sarah Caldwell.[1]
Career
Opera and concert work
Nixon's opera repertory includes Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, both Blonde and Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Violetta in La traviata, the title role in La Périchole and Philine in Mignon. Her opera credits include performances at Los Angeles Opera, Seattle Opera,[2] San Francisco Opera and the Tanglewood Festival among others. In addition to giving recitals, she appeared as an oratorio and concert soloist with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra among others.[3][4]
Films and musicals
Nixon's career on film started in 1948 when she sang the voices of the angels heard by Ingrid Bergman in Joan of Arc (1948). The next year, she did her first dubbing work when she provided Margaret O'Brien's singing voice in 1949's The Secret Garden. She also dubbed Marilyn Monroe's high notes in Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). She appeared on Broadway in 1954 in The Girl in Pink Tights.[5]
In 1956, she worked closely with Deborah Kerr to supply the star's singing voice for the film version of Rodgers & Hammerstein's The King and I, and the next year she again worked with Kerr to dub her voice in An Affair to Remember.[1] In 1961's West Side Story, the studio kept her work on the film (as the singing voice of Natalie Wood's Maria) a secret from the actress,[6][7] and Nixon also dubbed Rita Moreno's singing in the film's "Tonight" quintet. Sheasked the film's producers for, but did not receive, any direct royalties from her work on the film, but Leonard Bernstein contractually gave her 1/4 of one percent of his personal royalties from it.[2] For My Fair Lady in 1964,she again worked with the female lead of the film, Audrey Hepburn, to perform the songs of Hepburn's character Eliza.[6] Because of her uncredited dubbing work in these films, Time magazine called her "The Ghostess with the Mostest".[8][9]
Nixon made a special guest appearance on Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts broadcast that aired April 9, 1961, entitled "Folk Music in the Concert Hall." She sang three "Songs of the Auvergne" by Canteloube.[citation needed] Under her own name, she has recorded songs by Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Arnold Schönberg, Charles Ives, Aaron Copland and Anton Webern. Nixon was nominated for two Grammy Awards for Best Classical Performance, Vocal Soloist, one for her Schönberg album and one for her Copland album.[1][4]
Nixon's first onscreen appearance was as Sister Sophia in the 1965 film The Sound of Music. In the DVD commentary to the film, director Robert Wise comments that audiences were finally able to see the woman whose voice they knew so well.[10] After this, Nixon concentrated on concert work.[citation needed]
Later work
Nixon taught at the California Institute of Arts from 1969 to 1971 and joined the faculty of the Music Academy of the West, Santa Barbara, in 1980, where she taught for many years.[1][3] In the late 1970s and early 1980s, she hosted a children's television show in Seattle on KOMO-TV channel 4 called Boomerang, winning four Emmy Awards as best actress, and made numerous other television appearances on variety shows and as a guest star in prime time series.[4][11] She also toured with Liberace and Victor Borge and in her own cabaret shows. On stage, she originated the role of Sadie McKibben in Opal,[4] and in 1984, she was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for originating the role ofEdna Off-Broadway in Taking My Turn, composed by Gary William Friedman.[5][12] In the 1998 Disney film Mulan, Nixon sang the role of "Grandmother Fa". In regional theatre and Off-Broadway, she played Nurse in Romeo & Juliet and Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret and Eunice Miller in 70, Girls, 70. She had a 1997 film role as Aunt Alice in I Think I Do.[4] In 1999, she originated the role of Mrs. Wilson in the premiere of Ballymore, an opera by Richard Wargo atSkylight Opera Theatre in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which was taped for PBS.[13] She also continued to teach voice and judge vocal competitions.[4][13]
In 2000, after nearly a half century away, she returned to Broadway as Aunt Kate in James Joyce's The Dead.[5] In 2001, Nixon replaced Joan Roberts as Heidi Schiller in the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies.[1] In 2003, she was again on Broadway as a replacement in role of Guido's mother in the revival of Nine.[14] Her autobiography, I Could Have Sung All Night, was published in 2006.[2] She performed in the 2008 North American Tour of CameronMackintosh's U.K. revival of My Fair Lady in the role of Mrs. Higgins.[15][16]
Family and honors
The first of her three husbands, Ernest Gold, composed the theme song to the movie Exodus. They had three children, including singer/songwriter Andrew Gold (died June 3, 2011).[17] They divorced in 1969. She was married to Dr. Lajos "Fritz" Fenster from 1971 to 1975, and then to Albert Block in 1983.[citation needed]
On October 27, 2008, Nixon was presented with the Singer Symposium's Distinguished Artist Award in New York City.[4] She is also an Honorary Member of Sigma Alpha Iota International Women's Music Fraternity.[18]
References
{geni:about_me} She is an American soprano renowned for being a playback singer for featured actresses in well known movie musicals. This has earned her the sobriquet "The Ghostess with the Mostess", and also "The Voice of Hollywood". She has also spent much of her career performing in concerts with major symphony orchestras around the world and in operas and musicals throughout the United States.
Born Margaret McEathron in Altadena, California, Nixon began singing at an early age in choruses. At the age of 14, she became part of the newly formed Los Angeles Concert Youth Chorus – whose other members included a 13-year-oldMarilyn Horne and a 19-year-old Paul Salamunovich, among many others – under famed conductor Roger Wagner; this choir evolved into the Roger Wagner Chorale in 1948, and later into the Los Angeles Master Chorale in 1964.
She went on to study singing and opera with Carl Ebert, Jan Popper, Boris Goldovsky and Sarah Caldwell. She embarked on a varied career, involving film and musical comedy as well as opera and concerts. She appeared extensively onAmerican television, dubbed the singing voices of film actresses in The King and I, West Side Story and My Fair Lady, and acted in several commercial stage ventures. Her light, flexible, wide-ranging soprano and uncanny accuracy and musicianship have made her valuable in more classical ventures, and have contributed to her success in works by Anton Webern, Igor Stravinsky, Charles Ives, Paul Hindemith and Alexander Goehr, many of which she has recorded.
Nixon's opera repertory includes Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, both Blonde and Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Violetta in La traviata, the title role in La Périchole and Philine in Mignon. Her opera credits include performances at Los Angeles Opera, Seattle Opera, San Francisco Opera and the Tanglewood Festival among others. In addition to giving recitals, she appeared with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra among others. She taught at the California Institute ofArts from 1969–1971 and joined the faculty of the Music Academy of the West, Santa Barbara, in 1980 where she taught for many years.
Career highlights:
Nixon's dubbing career includes:
* The voices of the angels heard by Ingrid Bergman in Joan of Arc (1948)
* The singing voice of Margaret O'Brien in The Secret Garden (1949)
* Providing Marilyn Monroe with a few top notes in her performance of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
* An eerie vocalise (wordless vocal) as part of George Antheil's score for Dementia (1955)
* The singing voice for Deborah Kerr in the film of Rodgers & Hammerstein's The King and I (1956) (in one song — "Shall I tell you what I think of you?" — Kerr's and Nixon's voices were skillfully intertwined; this was deletedfrom the film before its release, but it was retained on the soundtrack cast recording; Deborah Kerr also provides the spoken words at the beginning of "Getting to know you").
* Dubbing Deborah Kerr's singing voice again in An Affair to Remember, one year after dubbing her in The King and I
* The singing voice for Natalie Wood as Maria in West Side Story (1961). Nixon also sang some parts of the score of Anita played by Rita Moreno, sharing the load with co-dubber Betty Wand and Moreno herself. In parts of the quintet setting of the song "Tonight", she sings both Maria and Anita's lines, according to her autobiography.
* The singing voice for Audrey Hepburn as Eliza in My Fair Lady (1964). In the finished film the only remaining singing vocals by Audrey Hepburn herself are the lower verse vocals in the song Just You Wait, the line "Sleep, sleep, I couldn't sleep tonight" in I Could Have Danced All Night and Just You Wait (reprise).
Except for Dementia, in which she received on-screen credit as "Featured Voice", the credits for her many dubbing roles did not appear on the titles of any of the films, and Nixon did not begin to be fully credited or widely acknowledged until the movies' subsequent release on VHS decades later.
The Sound of Music:
Nixon appeared on screen singing for herself as Sister Sophia in the film The Sound of Music, cast in the role by director Robert Wise. In the DVD commentary to the film, he comments that audiences were finally able to see the woman whose voice they knew so well.
Later work:
When Hollywood musicals gave her less work, she started to perform on stage, as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady and as Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, she hosted a children's television show in Seattle on KOMO-TV channel 4 called Boomerang. In 2001, she replaced Joan Roberts as Heidi Schiller in the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies. In 2003, she returned to Broadway as a replacement in role of Guido's motherin the revival of Nine.
In the 1998 Disney film Mulan, Nixon sang the role of Grandmother Fa.
In March 2007 she was involved in a concert version of My Fair Lady, in which she performed the non-singing role of Mrs. Higgins, Professor Higgins's mother.
On June 18, 2007, Marni joined a group of volunteers who were inspired by the documentary film "Tocar y Luchar."They are trying to bring more music education to all children.
Nixon performed on the U.S. National Tour of Cameron Mackintosh's U.K. revival of My Fair Lady through July 2008, replacing Sally Ann Howes in the role of Mrs. Higgins.
Under her own name, she has also recorded songs by Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Arnold Schönberg, Charles Ives, and Anton Webern.
One of her three husbands, Ernest Gold, composed the theme song to the movie Exodus. They had three children together, one of whom is the singer and songwriter Andrew Gold ("Lonely Boy" and "Thank You For Being a Friend").
On October 27, 2008, Marni Nixon was presented with the Singer Symposium's Distinguished Artist Award in New York City.
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marni_Nixon
IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0633262/
IBDB: http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=76317
--------------------
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marni_Nixon
Marni Nixon (born February 22, 1930) is an American soprano renowned for being a playback singer for featured actresses in well known movie musicals. This has earned her the sobriquet "The Ghostess with the Mostess", and "The Voice of Hollywood".[1] She has also spent much of her career performing in concerts with major symphony orchestras around the world and in operas and musicals throughout the United States.
Contents [show]
[edit]Biography
Born Margaret McEathron in Altadena, California, Nixon began singing at an early age in choruses. At the age of 14, she became part of the newly formed Los Angeles Concert Youth Chorus – whose other members included a 13-year-oldMarilyn Horne and a 19-year-old Paul Salamunovich, among many others – under famed conductor Roger Wagner; this choir evolved into the Roger Wagner Chorale in 1948, and later into the Los Angeles Master Chorale in 1964.
She went on to study singing and opera with Carl Ebert, Jan Popper, Boris Goldovsky and Sarah Caldwell. She embarked on a varied career, involving film and musical comedy as well as opera and concerts. She appeared extensively onAmerican television, dubbed the singing voices of film actresses in The King and I, West Side Story and My Fair Lady, and acted in several commercial stage ventures. Her light, flexible, wide-ranging soprano and uncanny accuracy and musicianship have made her valuable in more classical ventures, and have contributed to her success in works by Anton Webern, Igor Stravinsky, Charles Ives, Paul Hindemith and Alexander Goehr, many of which she has recorded.
Nixon's opera repertory includes Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, both Blonde and Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Violetta in La traviata, the title role in La Périchole and Philine in Mignon. Her opera credits include performances at Los Angeles Opera, Seattle Opera, San Francisco Opera and the Tanglewood Festival among others. In addition to giving recitals, she appeared with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra among others. She taught at the California Institute of Arts from 1969–1971 and joined the faculty of the Music Academy of the West, Santa Barbara, in 1980 where she taught for many years.[2]
Nixon's autobiography, I Could Have Sung All Night, was published by Billboard Books in 2006.
[edit]Career highlights
Nixon's dubbing career includes:[3]
The voices of the angels heard by Ingrid Bergman in Joan of Arc (1948).
The singing voice for Margaret O'Brien in The Secret Garden (1949).
Providing Marilyn Monroe with a few top notes in her performance of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953).
An eerie vocalise (wordless vocal) as part of George Antheil's score for Dementia (1955).
The singing voice for Deborah Kerr in the film of Rodgers & Hammerstein's The King and I (1956) (in one song — "Shall I tell you what I think of you?" — Kerr's and Nixon's voices were skilfully intertwined; this was deleted from the film before its release, but it was retained on the soundtrack cast recording; Deborah Kerr also provides the spoken words at the beginning of "Getting to know you").
Dubbing Deborah Kerr's singing voice again in An Affair to Remember, one year after dubbing her in The King and I.
The singing voice for Natalie Wood as Maria in West Side Story (1961). Nixon also sang some parts of the score of Anita played by Rita Moreno, sharing the load with co-dubber Betty Wand and Moreno herself. In parts of the quintetsetting of the song "Tonight", she sings both Maria and Anita's lines, according to her autobiography.
The singing voice for Audrey Hepburn as Eliza in My Fair Lady (1964). In the finished film, the only remaining singing vocals by Audrey Hepburn herself are a section of the song "Just You Wait", one line in the song "I Could HaveDanced All Night" – "Sleep, sleep, I couldn't sleep tonight", and "Just You Wait" (reprise).
Except for Dementia, in which she received on-screen credit as "Featured Voice", the credits for her many dubbing roles did not appear on the titles of any of the films, and Nixon did not begin to be fully credited or widely acknowledged until the movies' subsequent release on VHS decades later.
[edit]The Sound of Music
Nixon appeared on screen first telling her opinion to the nuns about Maria and then singing for herself as Sister Sophia in the film The Sound of Music, cast in the role by director Robert Wise. In the DVD commentary to the film,he comments that audiences were finally able to see the woman whose voice they knew so well.
[edit]Later work
When Hollywood musicals gave her less work, she started to perform on stage, as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady and as Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, she hosted a children's television show in Seattle on KOMO-TV channel 4 called Boomerang. In 2001, she replaced Joan Roberts as Heidi Schiller in the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies. In 2003, she returned to Broadway as a replacement in role of Guido's motherin the revival of Nine.
In the 1998 Disney film Mulan, Nixon sang the role of Grandmother Fa.
In March 2007 she was involved in a concert version of My Fair Lady, in which she performed the non-singing role of Mrs. Higgins, Professor Higgins's mother.
On June 18, 2007, Marni joined a group of volunteers who were inspired by the documentary film "Tocar y Luchar."[1] They are trying to bring more music education to all children.[2]
Nixon performed on the U.S. National Tour of Cameron Mackintosh's U.K. revival of My Fair Lady through July 2008, replacing Sally Ann Howes in the role of Mrs. Higgins.
Under her own name, she has also recorded songs by Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Arnold Schönberg, Charles Ives, and Anton Webern.
The first of her three husbands, Ernest Gold, composed the theme song to the movie Exodus. They had three children together, one of whom is the singer and songwriter Andrew Gold ("Lonely Boy" and "Thank You For Being a Friend").
On October 27, 2008, Marni Nixon was presented with the Singer Symposium's Distinguished Artist Award in New York City.
[edit]Notes
^ Biography of Marni Nixon at curtainup.com
^ Bernheimer: "Marni Nixon", Grove Music Online
^ Lawson, Kyle. "Marni Nixon in My Fair Lady", The Arizona Republic, June 10, 2008
[edit]Sources
Nixon, Marni, with Cole, Stephen. I Could Have Sung All Night: My Story. New York, Billboard Books. 2006. ISBN 0-8230-8365-9.
Martin Bernheimer: "Marni Nixon", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed September 22, 2008), (subscription access)
Internet Movie Database
--------------------
Marni Nixon (born February 22, 1930) is an American soprano and playback singer for featured actresses in movie musicals. She is most famous for dubbing the singing voices of the leading actresses in films, including The King andI, West Side Story, and My Fair Lady.
Nixon's varied career has included, besides her voice work in films, some film roles of her own, television, opera, concerts with major symphony orchestras around the world, musicals on stage throughout the United States and recordings.
Born Margaret Nixon McEathron in Altadena, California, to Charles Nixon and Margaret Elsa (née Wittke) McEathron, Nixon was a child actress and also began singing at an early age in choruses, including performing solos with the Roger Wagner Chorale.[1]
She went on to study singing and opera with Thomas Noble MacBurney, Carl Ebert, Jan Popper, Boris Goldovsky and Sarah Caldwell.[1]
Career
Opera and concert work
Nixon's opera repertory includes Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, both Blonde and Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Violetta in La traviata, the title role in La Périchole and Philine in Mignon. Her opera credits include performances at Los Angeles Opera, Seattle Opera,[2] San Francisco Opera and the Tanglewood Festival among others. In addition to giving recitals, she appeared as an oratorio and concert soloist with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra among others.[3][4]
Films and musicals
Nixon's career on film started in 1948 when she sang the voices of the angels heard by Ingrid Bergman in Joan of Arc (1948). The next year, she did her first dubbing work when she provided Margaret O'Brien's singing voice in 1949's The Secret Garden. She also dubbed Marilyn Monroe's high notes in Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). She appeared on Broadway in 1954 in The Girl in Pink Tights.[5]
In 1956, she worked closely with Deborah Kerr to supply the star's singing voice for the film version of Rodgers & Hammerstein's The King and I, and the next year she again worked with Kerr to dub her voice in An Affair to Remember.[1] In 1961's West Side Story, the studio kept her work on the film (as the singing voice of Natalie Wood's Maria) a secret from the actress,[6][7] and Nixon also dubbed Rita Moreno's singing in the film's "Tonight" quintet. Sheasked the film's producers for, but did not receive, any direct royalties from her work on the film, but Leonard Bernstein contractually gave her 1/4 of one percent of his personal royalties from it.[2] For My Fair Lady in 1964,she again worked with the female lead of the film, Audrey Hepburn, to perform the songs of Hepburn's character Eliza.[6] Because of her uncredited dubbing work in these films, Time magazine called her "The Ghostess with the Mostest".[8][9]
Nixon made a special guest appearance on Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts broadcast that aired April 9, 1961, entitled "Folk Music in the Concert Hall." She sang three "Songs of the Auvergne" by Canteloube.[citation needed] Under her own name, she has recorded songs by Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Arnold Schönberg, Charles Ives, Aaron Copland and Anton Webern. Nixon was nominated for two Grammy Awards for Best Classical Performance, Vocal Soloist, one for her Schönberg album and one for her Copland album.[1][4]
Nixon's first onscreen appearance was as Sister Sophia in the 1965 film The Sound of Music. In the DVD commentary to the film, director Robert Wise comments that audiences were finally able to see the woman whose voice they knew so well.[10] After this, Nixon concentrated on concert work.[citation needed]
Later work
Nixon taught at the California Institute of Arts from 1969 to 1971 and joined the faculty of the Music Academy of the West, Santa Barbara, in 1980, where she taught for many years.[1][3] In the late 1970s and early 1980s, she hosted a children's television show in Seattle on KOMO-TV channel 4 called Boomerang, winning four Emmy Awards as best actress, and made numerous other television appearances on variety shows and as a guest star in prime time series.[4][11] She also toured with Liberace and Victor Borge and in her own cabaret shows. On stage, she originated the role of Sadie McKibben in Opal,[4] and in 1984, she was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for originating the role ofEdna Off-Broadway in Taking My Turn, composed by Gary William Friedman.[5][12] In the 1998 Disney film Mulan, Nixon sang the role of "Grandmother Fa". In regional theatre and Off-Broadway, she played Nurse in Romeo & Juliet and Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret and Eunice Miller in 70, Girls, 70. She had a 1997 film role as Aunt Alice in I Think I Do.[4] In 1999, she originated the role of Mrs. Wilson in the premiere of Ballymore, an opera by Richard Wargo atSkylight Opera Theatre in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which was taped for PBS.[13] She also continued to teach voice and judge vocal competitions.[4][13]
In 2000, after nearly a half century away, she returned to Broadway as Aunt Kate in James Joyce's The Dead.[5] In 2001, Nixon replaced Joan Roberts as Heidi Schiller in the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies.[1] In 2003, she was again on Broadway as a replacement in role of Guido's mother in the revival of Nine.[14] Her autobiography, I Could Have Sung All Night, was published in 2006.[2] She performed in the 2008 North American Tour of CameronMackintosh's U.K. revival of My Fair Lady in the role of Mrs. Higgins.[15][16]
Family and honors
The first of her three husbands, Ernest Gold, composed the theme song to the movie Exodus. They had three children, including singer/songwriter Andrew Gold (died June 3, 2011).[17] They divorced in 1969. She was married to Dr. Lajos "Fritz" Fenster from 1971 to 1975, and then to Albert Block in 1983.[citation needed]
On October 27, 2008, Nixon was presented with the Singer Symposium's Distinguished Artist Award in New York City.[4] She is also an Honorary Member of Sigma Alpha Iota International Women's Music Fraternity.[18]
References