When I was a kid I loved musical theatre and the big MGM movie musicals. I was in awe of people who could sing, dance AND act. I especially was enamored with Audrey Hepburn in “My Fair Lady.” The most beautiful lady who danced gracefully and sang like an angel. Well, not really. I was surprised to learn later in life that she never really sang in the movie. Guess what? Neither did Deborah Kerr in “The King and I,” with Yul Brenner, nor did Natalie Wood in “West Side Story,” Hollywood deceived us. Surprise! Each role was actually sung by Marni Nixon.
Ms. Nixon passed away Sunday from breast cancer in New York City. She was 86.
In the “Major Motion Picture Musical” era, actresses without great singing voices were often “dubbed.” See “Singing in the Rain” for reference. Studios preferred to keep alive the myth that the stars did their own singing but Kerr spilled the beans in an interview about “The King and I” in 1956. Oops.
Marni Nixon was also the singing voice for Marilyn Monroe in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.” You think that was Marilyn singing ‘Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend?’ Nope. 20th Century Fox called her in 1955 to dub Kerr in the screen version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The King and I.” She also sang for Kerr in “An Affair to Remember.”
Kerr never minded that she was being dubbed and Hepburn actually welcomed it. However, Natalie Wood was famously fairly hacked that Nixon was used to dub her songs as Maria in “West Side Story.” Nixon also recorded the movie’s soundtrack and received royalties from that for years, even though her name never appears anywhere on the album.
She actually performed on screen as Sister Sophia in the film version of “The Sound of Music” in 1965 and she was a constant guest on TV variety shows from the ’50s through the ’70s. Her last movie role was Grandmother Fa in Disney’s 1998 “Mulan.”
She was born Feb. 22, 1930, in Altadena, CA. Beginning as a child, she was working as an extra or bit player in films, which continued through her teen years. She can be seen in over 50 other films. She won Emmys for her children’s show and wrote her autobiography, “I Could Have Sung All Night.” She was proceeded in death by her son Andrew Gold in 2011 and is survived by two daughters, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
