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Biography
Infobox person| name = Marni Nixon| image = Marni_Nixon_09.JPG| caption = Marni Nixon, following a performance at the Metropolitan Room, New York City, 2009| birth_date = birth date and age|1930|2|22| birth_place = Altadena, California , United States | spouse = Ernest Gold (composer)|Ernest Gold (m. 1950–1969) Lajos Frederick Fenster (m. 1971–1975) Albert Block (m. 1983-present)| children = Andrew Gold (1951-2011) Martha Gold (b. 1953) Melani Gold (b. 1962) Marni Nixon (born February 22, 1930) is an Americans|American soprano and playback singer for featured actresses in movie musicals . 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 .
Biography
Born Margaret Nixon McEathron in Altadena, California to Charles Nixon and Margaret Elsa (née Wittke) McEathron, Marni Nixon, a child actress, also began singing at an early age in choruses, including performing solos with the Roger Wagner Chorale.cite web|last=Ruhlmann|first=William|title=Marni Nixon (Biography)|url= http://www.billboard.com/artist/marni-nixon/9327#/artist/marni-nixon/bio/9327|work=Billboard.Com|accessdate=December 23, 2011
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 on American television, dubbed the singing voices of film actresses in The King and I (1956 film)|The King and I , An Affair to Remember , West Side Story (film)|West Side Story and My FairLady (film)|My FairLady , and acted in several commercial stage ventures.
Under her own name, she has also recorded songs by Jerome Kern , George Gershwin , Arnold Schoenberg|Arnold Schönberg , Charles Ives , Aaron Copland and Anton Webern . Nixon received two Grammy Best Classical Performance, Vocal Soloist nominations, one for her Schönberg album and one for her Copland album.
Opera
Refimprove section|date=December 2011Nixon'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 ,cite web|last=Bargreen|first=Melonda|title=From shadows to spotlight: Acclaimed soprano Marni Nixon, 76, writes her memoir| url= http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/entertainment/2003339356_marni03.html |work=SeattleTimes.NWSource.Com|publisher=The Seattle Times|accessdate=December 23, 2011|date=November 3, 2006 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.
Career highlights
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 film)|Joan of Arc (1948). The next year, she did her first Dubbing (filmmaking)|dubbing work when she sang Margaret O'Brien 's singing voice in 1949's The Secret Garden (1949 film)|The Secret Garden . And when MarilynMonroe sang those high notes in ''Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (film)|Gentlemen Prefer Blondes '' (1953), it was actually Nixon's voice the audience heard. In 1956 she worked closely with Deborah Kerr doing the star's singing voice for the film version of Rodgers & Hammerstein 's The King and I (1956 film)|The King and I and again the next year she worked with Kerr dubbing An Affair to Remember . In 1961's West Side Story (film)|West Side Story , the studio kept her work on the film (as the singing voice of Natalie Wood 's Maria) a secret from the actresscite web|last=Lawson|first=Kyle|title=6/17-22: Marni Nixon in 'My Fair Lady'|url= http://www.azcentral.com/ent/arts/articles/2008/06/10/20080610fairlady.html|work=AZCentral.Com|accessdate=December 23, 2011|date=Jun. 10, 2008cite news|last=Prial|first=Frank J.|title=Voice of the Many, but Rarely Herself|url= http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/06/theater/06marni.html|accessdate=December 23, 2011|newspaper=New York Times|date=March 6, 2007 and Nixon even dubbed Rita Moreno's singing in the film's number "Tonight". She asked the film's producers for, but did not receive, any direct royalties from her work on the film, but Leonard Bernstein contractually gave her 1/2 of one percent of his personal royalties from it. Nixon again dubbed for Wood when Gypsy (1962 film)| Gypsy was filmed in 1962. For My FairLady (film)|My FairLady in 1964, she again worked with the female lead of the film, Audrey Hepburn , to perform the songs of Hepburn's character Eliza. Because of her dubbing work for non-singing actresses in musical films, in some circles she became known as "The Ghostess with the Mostest".
The Sound of Music
Nixon appeared on screen first telling her opinion to the nuns about Maria and then singing for herself as SisterSophia in the 1965 film The Sound of Music (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. John Kenrick (theatre writer)|Kenrick, John . http://www.musicals101.com/dvd8.htm "Musicals on DVD 8", Musicals101.com, John Kenrick, 2007, accessed November 30, 2011
Later work
She 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.Bernheimer: "Marni Nixon", Grove Music Online In the late 1970s and early 1980s, she hosted a children's television show in Seattle on KOMO-TV channel 4 called Boomerang . http://www.seattlehistory.org/av_files/boomerang.mp3 In 2001 / 2002, she replaced Joan Roberts as Heidi Schiller in the Broadway theatre|Broadway Revival (play)|revival of Stephen Sondheim 's Follies . In 2003, she returned to Broadway as a replacement in role of Guido's mother in the revival of Nine .cite web|last=Hernandez|first=Ernio|title=Voice of "My Fair Lady" and " West Side Story" Joins Nine on Broadway, Oct. 7|url= http://www.playbill.com/news/article/81622-Voice-of-My-Fair-Lady-and-West-Side-Story-Joins-Nine-on-Broadway-Oct-7|work=Playbill|publisher=Playbill.Com|accessdate=December 23, 2011|date=September 15, 2003 In the 1998 Disney film Mulan , Nixon sang the role of "Grandmother Fa". Nixon's autobiography, I Could Have Sung All Night , was published in 2006. Nixon performed in the 2008 North American Tour of Cameron Mackintosh 's U.K. revival of My FairLady in the role of Mrs. Higgins.cite web|last=Zekas|first=Rita|title=Eliza Doolittle and love of hats bring actors together|url= http://www.thestar.com/article/427923|work=TheStar.Com|publisher=Toronto Star|accessdate=December 23, 2011|date=May 24, 2008cite web|title=My FairLady (Cast Biographies)|url= http://www.centertheatregroup.org/tickets/MFL_cast.aspx|publisher=Center Theatre Group|accessdate=December 23, 2011|year=2008
Family
The first of her three husbands, Ernest Gold (composer)|Ernest Gold , composed the theme song to the movie Exodus (film)|Exodus . They had three children, including singer/songwriter Andrew Gold (died June 3, 2011).cite web|last=Leigh|first=Spencer|title=Andrew Gold: Musician and songwriter whose collaborators included Ronstadt, Garfunkel and Cher|url= http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/andrew-gold-musician-and-songwriter-whose-collaborators-included-ronstadt-garfunkel-and-cher-2294196.html|publisher=The Independent|accessdate=December 23, 2011|date=June 8, 2011
Honors
On October 27, 2008, Marni Nixon was presented with the Singer Symposium's Distinguished Artist Award in New York City. Marni Nixon is also an Honorary Member of SigmaAlpha Iota International Women's Music Fraternity.
References
reflist
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), http://www.grovemusic.com (subscription access)
External links
http://www.marninixon.com Official website
IMDb name|0633262
IBDB name|76317
iobdb|Marni|Nixon
;Interview
http://traffic.libsyn.com/offbeatradio/MARNINIXONCOMPLETE.mp3 Marni Nixon - A Portrait for Radio - "Offbeat" on 103.2 Dublin City FM. Karishmeh Felfeli-Crawford in conversation with Marni Nixon
Persondata | NAME = Nixon, Marni | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION = Singer | DATE OF BIRTH = February 22, 1930 | PLACE OF BIRTH = Altadena, California | DATE OF DEATH = | PLACE OF DEATH = DEFAULTSORT:Nixon, Marni Category:1930 births Category:Living people Category:American female singers Category:American musical theatre actors Category:Operatic sopranos Category:American opera singers Category:California Institute of the Arts faculty Category:Music Academy of the West faculty
