Mitzi Gaynor, ‘South Pacific’ star, dead at 93
Mitzi Gaynor, an actor who helped define the technicolor Hollywood musical in the 1950s, has died at the age of 93.
Gaynor’s death was announced on her official X account on 17th October by her management team. “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved friend and client Mitzi Gaynor,” the statement said, noting that she enjoyed every minute of her professional career and was beloved in her private life as well.
“Off stage, she was a vibrant and extraordinary woman, a caring and loyal friend, and a warm, gracious, very funny and altogether glorious human being,” the message continued. Her cause of death has been revealed to be natural causes.
Gaynor had already worked in the industry for a decade when she scored her biggest role, beating out actors like Elizabeth Taylor and musical star Doris Day to play Ensign Nellie Forbush in the film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific. She was nominated for a Golden Globe for her effervescent performance as the US Navy nurse who falls in love with a French plantation owner, and was the only member of the cast whose musical numbers were not dubbed by a professional singer.
The late star was born Francesca Marlene de Czanyi von Gerber in Chicago in 1931. Her father was a cellist and violinist, and her mother was a dancer. Considering her family background, it was only fitting that she took up the performing arts at an early age.
At 13, she began dancing with Los Angeles Civic Light Opera and was discovered by 20th Century Fox executives at 17. They offered her a seven year contract with the studio, and she spent the next decade playing bubbly, vivacious supporting roles, including in the 1954 musical There’s No Business Like Show Business. In a stacked cast, she managed to hold her own against the larger-than-life performance of Broadway star Ethel Merman and the magnetic presence of Marilyn Monroe.
Following her success in South Pacific, the spotlight on Gaynor began to fade. Hollywood was changing, and the appetite for big-budget musicals was on the decline. Nevertheless, Gaynor was a creature of show business through and through, and she transitioned into live shows and television, including a decade-long stint doing the rounds of Las Vegas resorts.
She was also nominated for multiple Emmys for her variety specials, which allowed her to put all her skills as a musical star on full display. Even late in life she was committed to show business. In 2010, at age 78, she made her debut at Feinstein’s Cabaret in New York.
Later in life, when Gaynor reflected on career trajectory compared to her two-time co-star Marilyn Monroe, she noted that she had more talent than Monroe, but not the sex appeal. For decades, her professionalism, work ethic, and dazzling skill as a musical performer allowed her to hold her own against the megawatt charisma of some of Hollywood’s greatest stars.
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