Marni Nixon - Biography - IMDb Marni Nixon Jump to: Overview (3) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (3) | Trivia (17) | Personal Quotes (5) Overview (3) Margaret Nixon McEathron Mini Bio (1) "Loverly" soprano Marni Nixon has ensured herself a proper place in film history although most moviegoers would not recognize her if they passed her on the street. But if you heard her, that might be a horse of a different color. Marni is one of those unsung heroes (or should I say "much sung" heroes) whose incredible talents were given short shrift at the time. For those who think film superstars such as Deborah Kerr , Natalie Wood , and Audrey Hepburn possessed not only powerhouse dramatic talents but amazing singing voices as well...think again. Kerr's Anna in The King and I (1956), Natalie's Maria in West Side Story (1961), and Audrey's Eliza in My Fair Lady (1964) were all dubbed by the amazing Marni Nixon, and nowhere in the credits will you find that fact.

Born Marni McEathron in Altadena, California, she was a former child actress and soloist with the Roger Wagner Chorale in the beginning. Trained in opera, yet possessing a versatile voice for pop music and easy standards as well, she not only sang for Arnold Schönberg and Igor Stravinsky but also recorded light songs. Marni made her Broadway musical debut in 1954 in a show that lasted two months but nothing came from it. In 1955, the singer contracted to dub Deborah Kerr in The King and I (1956) was killed in a car accident in Europe and a replacement was needed. Marni was hired...and the rest is history. Much impressed, the studios brought her in to "ghost" Ms. Kerr's voice once again in the classic tearjerker An Affair to Remember (1957). From there she went on to make Natalie Wood and Audrey Hepburn sound incredibly good with such classic songs as "Tonight" and "Wouldn't It Be Loverly." She finally appeared on screen in a musical in The Sound of Music (1965) starring Julie Andrews , who physically resembles Marni.

The role is a small one, however, and she is only given a couple of solo lines in "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?" as a singing nun. Marni's vocal career in films dissolved by the mid 1960s, but she continued on with concerts and in symphony halls, while billing herself as "The Voice of Hollywood" in one-woman cabaret shows. Throughout the years, she has played on the legit stage, including the lead roles in "The King and I" and "The Sound of Music," and in her matronly years has been seen as Fraulein Schneider in "Cabaret," and in the musicals "Follies" and "70 Girls 70." Her last filmed singing voice was as the grandmother in the animated feature Mulan (1998) in the 1990s. Married three times, twice to musicians; one of her husbands, Ernest Gold , by whom she had three children, was a film composer and is best known for his Academy Award-winning epic Exodus (1960).

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net Spouse (3) Trivia (17) Hosted "Boomerang," a Seattle children's TV show. Provided the singing voice for Natalie Wood in West Side Story (1961). She also was Deborah Kerr 's singing voice in both An Affair to Remember (1957) and the musical classic The King and I (1956). Started out at the age of four as a violinist and had a singing act with her sisters by age eight. Earned her reputation as "Singing Voice of the Stars" by "ghosting" other film luminaries as well, including Margaret O'Brien , Janet Leigh , and Jeanne Crain in some of their song sequences. She even touched up some singing parts for Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), dubbing the phrase "These rocks don't lose their shape" and some higher notes in the "Diamond's Are a Girl's Best Friend" number.

She starred in her own local children's TV show in Seattle entitled "Boomerang" in the late 70s and early 80s and won four Emmys for her efforts. Toured extensively with both Liberace and Victor Borge . Of her three children, Andrew Gold is a rock musician, composer and producer; daughter Martha Gold Carr is a psychologist; and Melanie Gold is a singer and songwriter. Has appeared in one film with Julie Andrews : The Sound of Music (1965). She also provided Eliza Doolittle's singing voice for Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady (1964) a role originated on the stage by Andrews. Also dubbed the singing voice of Anita ( Rita Moreno ) in West Side Story (1961) for the song "Tonight" when Betty Wand developed bronchitis at the last moment. When Harvey Fierstein was asked who should play the lead in a film adaptation of the musical "La Cage Aux Folles", he replied: "Me! Dubbed by Marni Nixon!".

Replaced Joan Roberts as Heidi Schiller (who sings "One More Kiss") in the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's "Follies" [May 2001] Performed as the Mother Superior in The Sound of Music at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. [July 2006] Performed in a concert run ('The Voice of Hollywood') that toured the US. [June 2003] Playing Mrs. Higgins (Prof. Higgins' mother) in a touring production of My Fair Lady. [March 2008] Although she never dubbed the voice of Julie Andrews, Marni Nixon sang the role of Mary Poppins on the kids' version (Disneyland label) of the music from the film. Twentieth Century-Fox insisted Marni Nixon sign a contract that she would not reveal that she dubbed any part of Deborah Kerr's vocals in "The king and I" (1956).

Were she to do so, the studio threatened that they would see to it that she never worked "in this town (i.e., Hollywood) again." Deborah Kerr, who worked extremely closely - and extremely well - with Nixon thought this was very unfair and it was Miss Kerr herself who revealed the secret of the dubbing in an interview with the popular syndicated columnist Earl Wilson. Personal Quotes (5) [on dubbing for Natalie Wood in West Side Story (1961)] I knew that I would never be cast physically in the role of Maria. In the picture they wanted Maria to sound like a sixteen-year-old and they kept trying out Natalie's voice. Natalie was perfectly musical, but I had the feeling that it was only gradually when they started working with her that they said to themselves, "I don't think she is able to do it at all". I was hanging around and not knowing how much of my voice was going to be used except for a few high notes that she knew she couldn't sustain. In the end, Natalie recorded everything to her own takes and sometimes was even out of synch. My main job was to fix up all the inconsistencies of her original recordings.

I had to loop all the vocals after the film was finished. [from an interview in 1964] It's fascinating, getting inside the actresses you're singing for. 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. [from an interview in 1981] It got so I'd lent my voice to so many others that I felt it no longer belonged to me. It was eerie; I had lost part of myself. [from an interview in 2007] You always had to sign a contract that nothing would be revealed. Twentieth Century Fox, when I did The King and I (1956), threatened me. They said, "If anybody ever knows that you did any part of the dubbing for Deborah Kerr , we'll see to it that you won't work in town again." [from an interview in 1967] The anonymity didn't bother me until I sang Natalie Wood 's songs in West Side Story (1961). Then I saw how important my singing was to the picture.

I was giving my talent, and somebody else was taking the credit. See also Marni Nixon, voice of classic movie songs, has died at 86 Place an Obituary Marni Nixon, voice of classic movie songs, has died at 86 Actress Marni Nixon attends The Academy & MoMI hosts special archival screening of “The Sound of Music” at Museum of the Moving Image on May 2, 2015 in New York City. Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images for Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences By Mark Kennedy, AP Entertainment Writer Posted: # Comments NEW YORK >> Hollywood voice double Marni Nixon, whose singing was heard in place of the leading actresses in such classic movie musicals as “West Side Story,” ‘’The King and I” and “My Fair Lady,” has died. She was 86. Michael Kirsten, senior vice president of Nixon’s talent agency, Harden-Curtis Associates, said she died Sunday of cancer in New York. “She passed away peacefully with her family at her side,” he said. Nixon, who was initially uncredited for her work, early on resented the dubbing work but later came to terms with it.

“I realized now that this was something that would outlive me. Something that would last,” she wrote in her 2006 memoir, “I Could Have Sung All Night.” In the heyday of the Hollywood musical, studios often paid big money for film rights to hit Broadway shows, then cast them with popular non-singing actors and actresses. Such was the case with the 1956 hit “The King and I,” in which filmmakers dubbed Deborah Kerr’s voice with Nixon’s. “I was brought in and had to follow along with her, getting her diction and acting style,” Nixon recalled in 2004. “She in turn would study how I looked when I hit the high notes.” Nixon did the same for Natalie Wood in 1961’s “West Side Story” and Audrey Hepburn in 1964’s “My Fair Lady,” which had starred Julie Andrews onstage.

Earlier, she added a few notes to Marilyn Monroe’s “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” from “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.” She went uncredited in the films and on their soundtrack albums and was warned by the filmmakers that if she ever let it be known that she was doing the singing, “they would run me out of town.” Word began to leak out, however, and Kerr herself blew Nixon’s cover when she praised her work on “The King and I.” By the late 1960s, The Hollywood Reporter was joking that “they found out who was doing (talking horse) Mr. Ed’s voice on the television show; it was Marni Nixon’s horse.” Nixon also appeared before the cameras in 1965, in a small role as a nun in “The Sound of Music,” and provided the singing voice of Grandmother Fa in the 1998 animated film “Mulan.’” As the era of big, traditional movie musicals dried up, though, so did Nixon’s film career.

But she kept busy with other work, including starring in her own children’s TV show, singing opera, soloing with symphony orchestras, appearing in a road tour of “Cabaret” and teaching at the California Institute of the Arts. In her later years, she was also popular at nostalgia festivals, where she told audiences, “I allowed all these actresses to dub their bodies to my voice.” She had landed her role in “West Side Story” after Wood’s voice proved inadequate for the challenging Leonard Bernstein score. She prepared for it by studying Wood singing the role of Maria before the cameras — and had to then face the exacting task of getting her singing to match Wood’s on-screen lip movements.

Advertisement Hepburn, who had memorably sung “Moon River” in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” had campaigned to do her own singing as Eliza Doolittle in “My Fair Lady.” She was able to handle the film’s early cockney-accented songs like “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” but Nixon — again carefully matching Hepburn’s vocal style — had to be called in for such soaring melodies as “I Could Have Danced All Night.” Both Wood and Hepburn, Nixon wrote, worked hard to learn the songs, and their singing was recorded in hopes that Nixon’s voice would be needed only to fill in on difficult passages. But that was not to be. “I heard later that Natalie Wood was very upset and felt betrayed by the powers that be,” Nixon wrote. As for Hepburn, “determined as she was, her vocals were not used.” Nixon recalled that after getting no royalties from the big-selling “The King and I” soundtrack album, she and her manager fought for better treatment for “West Side Story.” After some haggling, she wrote, Bernstein made the “incredibly generous gesture” of giving up a sliver of his royalty share.

It amounted to a major payday for her, given the album’s huge sales. She recalled she also had a small credit as “soprano soloist” — but no royalty — on the soundtrack recording of Kerr’s 1957 “An Affair to Remember.” The film isn’t a musical, but Kerr’s character is a nightclub singer. Nixon was born Margaret Nixon McEathron in 1930 in Altadena, California. The nickname Marni came from the first letters of her first and middle names. She took up the violin as a child and later studied voice. Her first dubbing job was for young Margaret O’Brien in the 1949 film “The Secret Garden.” Onstage, she made her Broadway debut in 1954 in “The Girl in Pink Tights,” and was in the 2001 revival of “Follies” and the 2003 revival of “Nine.” She toured with “My Fair Lady” in 2007. Nixon was married to film composer-conductor Ernest Gold, Oscar winner for “Exodus,” from 1950 to 1969. A second marriage, to Dr.

Lajos Fenster, in 1971 also ended in divorce. Nixon married flutist Albert Block in 1983. Her son, Andrew Gold, was a rock musician who arranged music for Linda Ronstadt and had a top 10 hit in 1977 with “Lonely Boy.” He died in 2011. She also had two daughters with her first husband, Martha and Melani. Biographical material in this story was written by The Associated Press’ late Hollywood correspondent Bob Thomas. This story has been updated to correct Nixon’s year of birth to 1930. Marni Nixon, Voice of Classic Movie Songs, Has Died at 86 | Art Wire | KQED Arts Art Wire Marni Nixon, Voice of Classic Movie Songs, Has Died at 86 Marni Nixon attends The Academy & MoMI hosts special archival screening of 'The Sound of Music' at Museum of the Moving Image on May 2, 2015 in New York City.

(Photo: Rob Kim/Getty Images for Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) By Mark Kennedy, Associated Press July 25, 2016 Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window) Hollywood voice double Marni Nixon, whose singing was heard in place of the leading actresses in such classic movie musicals as West Side Story, The King and I and My Fair Lady, has died. She was 86. Michael Kirsten, senior vice president of Nixon’s talent agency, Harden-Curtis Associates, said she died Sunday of cancer in New York. “She passed away peacefully with her family at her side,” he said. Nixon, who was initially uncredited for her work, early on resented the dubbing work but later came to terms with it. “I realized now that this was something that would outlive me. Something that would last,” she wrote in her 2006 memoir, I Could Have Sung All Night. In the heyday of the Hollywood musical, studios often paid big money for film rights to hit Broadway shows, then cast them with popular non-singing actors and actresses.

Such was the case with the 1956 hit The King and I, in which filmmakers dubbed Deborah Kerr’s voice with Nixon’s. “I was brought in and had to follow along with her, getting her diction and acting style,” Nixon recalled in 2004. “She in turn would study how I looked when I hit the high notes.” Nixon did the same for Natalie Wood in 1961’s West Side Story and Audrey Hepburn in 1964’s My Fair Lady, which had starred Julie Andrews onstage. Earlier, she added a few notes to Marilyn Monroe’s Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend, from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. She went uncredited in the films and on their soundtrack albums and was warned by the filmmakers that if she ever let it be known that she was doing the singing, “they would run me out of town.” Word began to leak out, however, and Kerr herself blew Nixon’s cover when she praised her work on The King and I. By the late 1960s, The Hollywood Reporter was joking that “they found out who was doing (talking horse) Mr.

Ed’s voice on the television show; it was Marni Nixon’s horse.” Nixon also appeared before the cameras in 1965, in a small role as a nun in The Sound of Music, and provided the singing voice of Grandmother Fa in the 1998 animated film Mulan. As the era of big, traditional movie musicals dried up, though, so did Nixon’s film career. But she kept busy with other work, including starring in her own children’s TV show, singing opera, soloing with symphony orchestras, appearing in a road tour of Cabaret and teaching at the California Institute of the Arts. In her later years, she was also popular at nostalgia festivals, where she told audiences, “I allowed all these actresses to dub their bodies to my voice.” She had landed her role in West Side Story after Wood’s voice proved inadequate for the challenging Leonard Bernstein score. She prepared for it by studying Wood singing the role of Maria before the cameras — and had to then face the exacting task of getting her singing to match Wood’s on-screen lip movements.

Hepburn, who had memorably sung “Moon River” in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, had campaigned to do her own singing as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady. She was able to handle the film’s early cockney-accented songs like “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” but Nixon — again carefully matching Hepburn’s vocal style — had to be called in for such soaring melodies as “I Could Have Danced All Night.” Both Wood and Hepburn, Nixon wrote, worked hard to learn the songs, and their singing was recorded in hopes that Nixon’s voice would be needed only to fill in on difficult passages. But that was not to be. “I heard later that Natalie Wood was very upset and felt betrayed by the powers that be,” Nixon wrote. As for Hepburn, “determined as she was, her vocals were not used.” Nixon recalled that after getting no royalties from the big-selling The King and I soundtrack album, she and her manager fought for better treatment for West Side Story. After some haggling, she wrote, Bernstein made the “incredibly generous gesture” of giving up a sliver of his royalty share. It amounted to a major payday for her, given the album’s huge sales.

She recalled she also had a small credit as “soprano soloist” — but no royalty — on the soundtrack recording of Kerr’s 1957 An Affair to Remember. The film isn’t a musical, but Kerr’s character is a nightclub singer. Nixon was born Margaret Nixon McEathron in 1930 in Altadena, Calif. The nickname Marni came from the first letters of her first and middle names. She took up the violin as a child and later studied voice. Her first dubbing job was for young Margaret O’Brien in the 1949 film The Secret Garden. Onstage, she made her Broadway debut in 1954 in The Girl in Pink Tights, and was in the 2001 revival of Follies and the 2003 revival of Nine. She toured with My Fair Lady in 2007. Nixon was married to film composer-conductor Ernest Gold, Oscar winner for Exodus, from 1950 to 1969. A second marriage, to Dr. Lajos Fenster, in 1971 also ended in divorce.

Nixon married flutist Albert Block in 1983. Her son, Andrew Gold, was a rock musician who arranged music for Linda Ronstadt and had a top 10 hit in 1977 with “Lonely Boy.” He died in 2011. She also had two daughters with her first husband, Martha and Melani. ___ Biographical material in this story was written by The Associated Press’ late Hollywood correspondent Bob Thomas. Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Marni Nixon, voice of classic movie songs, has died at 86 | WJLA Marni Nixon, voice of classic movie songs, has died at 86 by MARK KENNEDY, AP Entertainment Writer Marni Nixon attending the Annual Primary Stages Gala held at the Edison Ballroom.

Where: New York City, United States When: 01 Nov 2010 Credit: Joseph Marzullo/Wenn.com 3 photos AA NEW YORK (AP) — Hollywood voice double Marni Nixon, whose singing was heard in place of the leading actresses in such classic movie musicals as "West Side Story," ''The King and I" and "My Fair Lady," has died. She was 86. Michael Kirsten, senior vice president of Nixon's talent agency, Harden-Curtis Associates, said she died Sunday of cancer in New York. "She passed away peacefully with her family at her side," he said. Nixon, who was initially uncredited for her work, early on resented the dubbing work but later came to terms with it. "I realized now that this was something that would outlive me. Something that would last," she wrote in her 2006 memoir, "I Could Have Sung All Night." In the heyday of the Hollywood musical, studios often paid big money for film rights to hit Broadway shows, then cast them with popular non-singing actors and actresses.

Such was the case with the 1956 hit "The King and I," in which filmmakers dubbed Deborah Kerr's voice with Nixon's. "I was brought in and had to follow along with her, getting her diction and acting style," Nixon recalled in 2004. "She in turn would study how I looked when I hit the high notes." Nixon did the same for Natalie Wood in 1961's "West Side Story" and Audrey Hepburn in 1964's "My Fair Lady," which had starred Julie Andrews onstage. Earlier, she added a few notes to Marilyn Monroe's "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend," from "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." She went uncredited in the films and on their soundtrack albums and was warned by the filmmakers that if she ever let it be known that she was doing the singing, "they would run me out of town." Word began to leak out, however, and Kerr herself blew Nixon's cover when she praised her work on "The King and I." By the late 1960s, The Hollywood Reporter was joking that "they found out who was doing (talking horse) Mr.

Ed's voice on the television show; it was Marni Nixon's horse." ( See video below at :05 ) As the era of big, traditional movie musicals dried up, though, so did Nixon's film career. But she kept busy with other work, including starring in her own children's TV show, singing opera, soloing with symphony orchestras, appearing in a road tour of "Cabaret" and teaching at the California Institute of the Arts. In her later years, she was also popular at nostalgia festivals, where she told audiences, "I allowed all these actresses to dub their bodies to my voice." She had landed her role in "West Side Story" after Wood's voice proved inadequate for the challenging Leonard Bernstein score. She prepared for it by studying Wood singing the role of Maria before the cameras — and had to then face the exacting task of getting her singing to match Wood's on-screen lip movements.

Hepburn, who had memorably sung "Moon River" in "Breakfast at Tiffany's," had campaigned to do her own singing as Eliza Doolittle in "My Fair Lady." She was able to handle the film's early cockney-accented songs like "Wouldn't It Be Loverly," but Nixon — again carefully matching Hepburn's vocal style — had to be called in for such soaring melodies as "I Could Have Danced All Night." Both Wood and Hepburn, Nixon wrote, worked hard to learn the songs , and their singing was recorded in hopes that Nixon's voice would be needed only to fill in on difficult passages. But that was not to be. "I heard later that Natalie Wood was very upset and felt betrayed by the powers that be," Nixon wrote. As for Hepburn, "determined as she was, her vocals were not used." Nixon recalled that after getting no royalties from the big-selling "The King and I" soundtrack album, she and her manager fought for better treatment for "West Side Story." After some haggling, she wrote, Bernstein made the "incredibly generous gesture" of giving up a sliver of his royalty share.

It amounted to a major payday for her, given the album's huge sales. She recalled she also had a small credit as "soprano soloist" — but no royalty — on the soundtrack recording of Kerr's 1957 "An Affair to Remember." The film isn't a musical, but Kerr's character is a nightclub singer. Nixon was born Margaret Nixon McEathron in 1929 in Altadena, California. The nickname Marni came from the first letters of her first and middle names. She took up the violin as a child and later studied voice. Her first dubbing job was for young Margaret O'Brien in the 1949 film "The Secret Garden." Onstage, she made her Broadway debut in 1954 in "The Girl in Pink Tights," and was in the 2001 revival of "Follies" and the 2003 revival of "Nine." She toured with "My Fair Lady" in 2007. Nixon was married to film composer-conductor Ernest Gold, Oscar winner for "Exodus," from 1950 to 1969. A second marriage, to Dr.

Lajos Fenster, in 1971 also ended in divorce. Nixon married flutist Albert Block in 1983. Her son, Andrew Gold, was a rock musician who arranged music for Linda Ronstadt and had a top 10 hit in 1977 with "Lonely Boy." He died in 2011. She also had two daughters with her first husband, Martha and Melani. close Marni Nixon, 86, voice of classic movie songs - The Boston Globe Already a subscriber? Members Sign In Marni Nixon, 86, voice of classic movie songs The Boston Globe Tweet Share Rob Kim/Getty Images/File 2015 Ms. Nixon, who was initially uncredited for her work, early on resented the dubbing work but later came to terms with it. By Mark Kennedy Associated Press July 25, 2016 NEW YORK — Hollywood voice double Marni Nixon, whose singing was heard in place of the leading actresses in such classic movie musicals as “West Side Story,” “The King and I,” and “My Fair Lady,” has died. She was 86.

Michael Kirsten, senior vice president of Ms. Nixon’s talent agency, Harden-Curtis Associates, said she died Sunday of cancer in New York. ‘‘She passed away peacefully with her family at her side,’’ he said. Advertisement Ms. Nixon, who was initially uncredited for her work, early on resented the dubbing work but later came to terms with it. “I realized now that this was something that would outlive me. Something that would last,” she wrote in her 2006 memoir, “I Could Have Sung All Night.” In the heyday of the Hollywood musical, studios often paid big money for film rights to hit Broadway shows, then cast them with nonsinging actors and actresses. Get Today's Headlines in your inbox: The day's top stories delivered every morning. Sign Up Thank you for signing up! Sign up for more newsletters here Such was the case with the 1956 hit “The King and I,” in which filmmakers dubbed Deborah Kerr’s voice with Ms. Nixon’s.

When singer/actress Marni Nixon ran into some difficulties while providing Natalie Wood’s vocals for the film “West Side Story,” musical director Saul Chaplin told her, “We didn’t hire you for your voice, we hired you for your iron nerves.”Nixon laughs at the memory, but her experience dubbing the vocals for Wood, who played Maria, was more than a little challenging. She describes many of her stories in her 2006 autobiography “I Could Have Sung All Night,” but audiences can hear her work when the Boston Symphony Orchestra performs Leonard Bernstein’s lush score while screening the movie Friday through Sunday at Symphony Hall. At the Sunday performance, Nixon will be interviewed on stage by Joyce Kulhawik, former WBZ-TV entertainment reporter, before the concert. “I was brought in and had to follow along with her, getting her diction and acting style,” Nixon recalled in 2004. “She in turn would study how I looked when I hit the high notes.” Nixon did the same for Natalie Wood in 1961’s “West Side Story” and Audrey Hepburn in 1964’s “My Fair Lady,” which had starred Julie Andrews onstage.

Earlier, she added a few notes to Marilyn Monroe’s ‘‘Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” from “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.” Advertisement She went uncredited in the films and on their soundtrack albums and was warned by the filmmakers that if she ever let it be known that she was doing the singing, “they would run me out of town.” Word began to leak out, however, and Kerr herself blew Ms. Nixon’s cover when she praised her work on “The King and I.” By the late 1960s, The Hollywood Reporter was joking that “they found out who was doing [talking horse] Mr. Ed’s voice on the television show; it was Marni Nixon’s horse.” Ms. Nixon also appeared before the cameras in 1965, in a small role as a nun in “The Sound of Music,” and provided the singing voice of Grandmother Fa in the 1998 animated film “Mulan.” As the era of big, traditional movie musicals dried up, though, so did Ms. Nixon’s film career.

But she kept busy with other work, including starring in her own children’s TV show, singing opera, soloing with symphony orchestras, appearing in a road tour of “Cabaret,” and teaching at the California Institute of the Arts. In her later years, she was also popular at nostalgia festivals, where she told audiences, “I allowed all these actresses to dub their bodies to my voice.” She had landed her role in “West Side Story” after Wood’s voice proved inadequate for the challenging Leonard Bernstein score. She prepared for it by studying Wood singing the role of Maria before the cameras — and had to then face the exacting task of getting her singing to match Wood’s on-screen lip movements. Hepburn, who had memorably sung “Moon River” in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” had campaigned to do her own singing as Eliza Doolittle in “My Fair Lady.” She was able to handle the film’s early cockney-accented songs like “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” but Ms. Nixon — again carefully matching Hepburn’s vocal style — had to be called in for such soaring melodies as “I Could Have Danced All Night.” Both Wood and Hepburn, Ms.

Nixon wrote, worked hard to learn the songs, and their singing was recorded in hopes that Ms. Nixon’s voice would be needed only to fill in on difficult passages. But that was not to be. “I heard later that Natalie Wood was very upset and felt betrayed by the powers that be,” Ms. Nixon wrote. As for Hepburn, “determined as she was, her vocals were not used.” Ms. Nixon recalled that after getting no royalties from the big-selling “The King and I” soundtrack album, she and her manager fought for better treatment for “West Side Story.” After some haggling, she wrote, Bernstein made the “incredibly generous gesture” of giving up a sliver of his royalty share. It amounted to a major payday for her, given the album’s huge sales. She recalled she also had a small credit as “soprano soloist” — but no royalty — on the soundtrack recording of Kerr’s 1957 “An Affair to Remember.” The film isn’t a musical, but Kerr’s character is a nightclub singer. Ms. Nixon was born Margaret Nixon McEathron in 1930 in Altadena, Calif.

The nickname Marni came from the first letters of her first and middle names. She took up the violin as a child and later studied voice. Her first dubbing job was for young Margaret O’Brien in the 1949 film “The Secret Garden.” Onstage, she made her Broadway debut in 1954 in “The Girl in Pink Tights,” and was in the 2001 revival of “Follies” and the 2003 revival of “Nine.” She toured with “My Fair Lady” in 2007. Ms. Nixon was married to film composer-conductor Ernest Gold, Oscar winner for “Exodus,” from 1950 to 1969. A second marriage, to Dr. Lajos Fenster, in 1971 also ended in divorce. Ms. Nixon married flutist Albert Block in 1983. Her son, Andrew Gold, was a rock musician who arranged music for Linda Ronstadt and had a top 10 hit in 1977 with ‘‘Lonely Boy.’’ He died in 2011.

She also had two daughters with her first husband, Martha and Melani. Top 10 Trending Articles Marni Nixon, voice of the stars, dies at 86 Marni Nixon, voice of the stars, dies at 86 Updated: July 26, 2016 â 3:01 AM EDT JOAN MARCUS Marni Nixon, seen in 2008 as part of a touring production of "My Fair Lady," in which she played the mother of Professor Higgins - a non-singing role, ironic for a woman who made her career dub-singing for stars such as Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, and Natalie Wood. Mark Kennedy Associated Press NEW YORK - One of the most recognizable voices in the history of movies has been silenced. Hollywood voice double Marni Nixon, whose singing was heard in place of the leading actresses in such classic movie musicals as West Side Story, The King and I, and My Fair Lady, has died. She was 86. Mail icon Michael Kirsten, senior vice president of Ms. Nixon's talent agency, Harden-Curtis Associates, said she died Sunday of cancer in New York.

"She passed away peacefully with her family at her side," he said. Ms. Nixon, who was initially uncredited for her efforts, early on resented the dubbing work but later came to terms with it. "I realized now that this was something that would outlive me. Something that would last," she wrote in her 2006 memoir, I Could Have Sung All Night. In a 2008 Inquirer interview, Ms. Nixon said: "Looking back, I was able to do so many things. . . . I was able to be a part of musicals, and the classical scene. I could go from doing opera and chamber music to doing straight plays. Then the dubbing came along, and it was just a part of making a living." In the heyday of the Hollywood musical, studios often paid big money for film rights to hit Broadway shows, then cast them with popular non-singing actors and actresses. Such was the case with the 1956 hit The King and I, in which filmmakers dubbed Deborah Kerr's voice with Ms. Nixon's. "I was brought in and had to follow along with her, getting her diction and acting style," Ms.

Nixon recalled in 2004. "She in turn would study how I looked when I hit the high notes." Ms. Nixon did the same for Natalie Wood in 1961's West Side Story and Audrey Hepburn in 1964's My Fair Lady, which had starred Julie Andrews on stage. Earlier, she had added a few notes to Marilyn Monroe's "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. She went uncredited in the films and on their sound track albums and was warned by the filmmakers that if she ever let it be known she was doing the singing, "they would run me out of town." Word began to leak out, however, and Kerr herself blew Ms. Nixon's cover when she praised her work on The King and I. By the late 1960s, the Hollywood Reporter was joking that "they found out who was doing [talking horse] Mr. Ed's voice on the television show; it was Marni Nixon's horse." Ms.

Nixon also appeared before the cameras in 1965, in a small role as a nun in The Sound of Music, and provided the singing voice of Grandmother Fa in the 1998 animated film Mulan. As the era of big, traditional movie musicals dried up, though, so did Ms. Nixon's film career. But she kept busy with other work, including starring in her own children's TV show, singing opera, soloing with symphony orchestras, appearing in a road tour of Cabaret, and teaching at the California Institute of the Arts. In her later years, she was also popular at nostalgia festivals, where she told audiences, "I allowed all these actresses to dub their bodies to my voice." She had landed her role in West Side Story after Wood's voice proved inadequate for the challenging Leonard Bernstein score. She prepared for it by studying Wood singing the role of Maria before the cameras - and had to then face the exacting task of getting her singing to match Wood's on-screen lip movements. Hepburn, who had memorably sung "Moon River" in Breakfast at Tiffany's, had campaigned to do her own singing as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady.

She was able to handle the film's early cockney-accented songs like "Wouldn't It Be Loverly," but Ms. Nixon - again carefully matching Hepburn's vocal style - had to be called in for such soaring melodies as "I Could Have Danced All Night." Both Wood and Hepburn, Ms. Nixon wrote, worked hard to learn the songs, and their singing was recorded in hopes that Ms. Nixon's voice would be needed only to fill in on difficult passages. But that was not to be. "I heard later that Natalie Wood was very upset and felt betrayed by the powers that be," Ms. Nixon wrote. As for Hepburn, "determined as she was, her vocals were not used." Ms. Nixon recalled that after getting no royalties from the big-selling The King and I sound track album, she and her manager fought for better treatment with West Side Story. After some haggling, she wrote, Bernstein made the "incredibly generous gesture" of giving up a sliver of his royalty share. It amounted to a major payday for her, given the album's huge sales.

She recalled she also had a small credit as "soprano soloist" - but no royalty - on the sound track recording of Kerr's 1957 An Affair to Remember. The film isn't a musical, but Kerr's character is a nightclub singer. Ms. Nixon was born Margaret Nixon McEathron in 1930 in Altadena, Calif. The nickname Marni came from the first letters of her first and middle names. She took up the violin as a child and later studied voice. Her first dubbing job was for young Margaret O'Brien in the 1949 film The Secret Garden. She made her Broadway debut in 1954 in The Girl in Pink Tights and was in the 2001 revival of Follies and the 2003 revival of Nine. She toured with My Fair Lady in 2007 and 2008. Ms. Nixon was married to film composer-conductor Ernest Gold, Oscar winner for Exodus, from 1950 to 1969. A second marriage, to Dr. Lajos Fenster in 1971, also ended in divorce. Ms.

Nixon married flutist Albert Block in 1983. Her son, Andrew Gold, was a rock musician who arranged music for Linda Ronstadt and had a top-10 hit in 1977 with "Lonely Boy." He died in 2011. She also had two daughters with her first husband, Martha and Melani. Late Associated Press Hollywood correspondent Bob Thomas wrote biographical material that appears in this article. Published: Film | By Moze Halperin | July 25, 2016 The New York Times reports that Marni Nixon (born Margaret Nixon McEathron in Altadena, CA), whose name you may not know, and whose voice you may not know you know (but surely do know), has died at 86. According to the paper, she died yesterday on Manhattan, after having lived on the Upper West Side for over four decades. She’s survived by a great deal of relatives, including three sisters, two daughters, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

If you’ve ever had “I Feel Pretty” or “I Could’ve Danced All Night” stuck in your head, it was likely in Nixon’s voice, for she was the “ghost-singer” for much of Natalie Wood’s Maria in West Side Story and Audrey Hepburn’s Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady. Even if the aforementioned songs aren’t your favorites, Nixon contributed to over 50 films, so more likely than not, she’s crooned her way through your subconscious on various occasions. (The Times points out that sometimes she wouldn’t even dub full songs — for example, she sang just two lines of Marilyn Monroe’s “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.) Beyond being dubbed by Time as “the ghostess with the mostess,” she had a full career as a classical singer: she made her solo debut singing “Carmina Burana” at the Hollywood Bowl in 1947, appeared solo at the likes of Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, alongside the New York Philharmonic, toured with Liberace, performed with the LA, Seattle and San Francisco Operas; she also made assorted appearances in shows on Broadway.

(Nixon also, later, taught at Cal Arts, and was the host of the Seattle-based kids’ series, Boomerang in the 70s and 80s.) Since her work dubbing famous actress’ musical appearances often went uncredited, it was these other endeavors that saw her get to openly present her talents to audiences. “It was just a part of the working singer’s job in Hollywood to do anything that was necessary and a lot of dubbing was going on,” she told the Washington Post in 2013. Some of her most famous dubbing work wasn’t as lucrative as you might think, though — she sang “Getting to Know You” for The King and I for Deborah Kerr, and earned only $420 from it. The singer alleged that she’d actually been threatened by 20th Century Fox that if she ever revealed that she sang that part, it’d be the end of her career. (The story ultimately broke, BBC notes , when Kerr herself credited her during an interview.) For her vocal performances in these iconic films, she would devote a great deal of effort coming to understand the ways the voices of the actresses she’d be singing as worked.

For Deborah Kerr, she told the Post that she would elongate her neck and morph her mouth to look like that of the King and I star. She said: I think I learned more about acting from observing her in that way. To imagine what was going on in her mind that would create that kind of sound and the flow of the emotionality that was going through her when she was singing. For West Side Story, Natalie Wood supposedly didn’t fully know how much of her own voice would be totally replaced by Nixon’s — and it turns out that at one point in the film, Nixon is harmonizing with herself as both Maria and Rita Moreno’s Anita in part of “Tonight.” (That being said, her name did not appear on the soundtrack, and for that, she did not get the portion of the royalties she would have otherwise; BBC notes that Leonard Bernstein eventually gave up .25 percent of his own earnings from the soundtrack to her). The one time Nixon actually sang in the flesh in a film was in The Sound of Music as a nun singing “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?”

Question: Whose voice did Marni Nixon dub in the classic My Fair Lady?
Answer: Audrey Hepburn