Mitzi Gaynor, an exuberant star who made her breakthrough in the blockbuster musical “South Pacific.”

Mitzi Gaynor, who has died aged 93, enjoyed a meteoric rise to stardom in the 1950s, appearing alongside breakout leading men such as Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Gene Kelly and David Niven and adding sharp glamor to her bohemian look notable for her high cheekbones and cheerful eyes.

After early appearances in films such as Golden Girl (1951), Bloodhounds of Broadway (1952) and Anything Goes (1956), she made her big breakthrough in the blockbuster musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein South Pacific (1958) as Nellie Forbush, the young US American Navy nurse determined to “wash this man right out of my hair.”

The role had been created by Mary Martin on Broadway in 1949, but she was considered too old, and Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein cast Mitzi Gaynor, who was about 20 years her junior, in the film adaptation.

In fact, both Rodgers and Hammerstein hated the film, largely because of the extreme color filters, which some critics said ruined every song. Still, Mitzi Gaynor recognized that the book and score of South Pacific went beyond the usual Hollywood froth with its theme of racial tolerance. She emphasized: “Nellie Forbush was one of the first feminist figures and she didn’t know it. She was just a little girl from Little Rock who landed on an island in the Pacific surrounded by soldiers. She meets a man with an accent she's never heard before who offers her a brandy and a plantation.

“She can't overcome her own prejudices at first – he was married to a black woman and has Polynesian children who are black to her. But Nellie overcomes what she was taught as a child, and when the love of her life is killed in action, Nellie decides to raise his children as her own.”

As Nellie Forbush, Mitzi Gaynor was the lover of the handsome and mysterious French planter Emile de Becque, played by Italian actor Rossano Brazzi, whom she met on a South Pacific island during World War II. Although Brazzi was strikingly good-looking (“Sometimes my face is more beautiful than the leading lady's”), he did not claim a singing voice, and his numbers such as Some Enchanted Evening, with which he wooed Nellie Forbush, were overdubbed by Giorgio Tozzi; Nevertheless, Brazzi and Mitzi Gaynor (and Brazzi's first wife) became close friends.

“He would walk around so in love with himself – 'Mitzi Gahnor, I'm so beautiful' – could you imagine not having a good time with someone like that?”

“South Pacific” grossed $17 million upon its release in the United States and became one of the highest-grossing films of the 1950s. “In England they went crazy over the picture,” says Laurence Maslon in The South Pacific Companion. “Until Goldfinger it was the biggest moneymaker in the UK.”

With fewer than 20 films, Mitzi Gaynor's film career was comparatively short, and after working with some of the great leading actors of her time – “I've never worked with a stinker – how great is that?” – she turned to television in the early 1960s to.

Francesca Marlene de Czanyi von Gerber was born on September 4, 1931 in Chicago. Her musician father was Hungarian and her mother was a dancer of Austrian descent.

The family moved to Los Angeles, where she attended Hollywood High School, learned to dance, and was a member of the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera ballet corps at age 12.

At 14, she toured American army camps with a theater troupe, and after being discovered by a 20th Century Fox talent scout at a stage revival of “The Great Waltz” in Los Angeles, she signed a seven-year contract and changed her name after a Fox studio The manager told her that Mitzi Gerber sounded like a deli.

After making her uncredited film debut at 19 as a showgirl in My Blue Heaven (1950), starring Betty Grable, she caught the attention of millionaire director and producer Howard Hughes, who was 27 years her senior, and proposed to her made. Although she turned him down, he loaned her $25 to buy five acres of land on the Las Vegas Strip, which she later sold for $1.5 million.

Throughout her life, she proved adept at real estate, purchasing homes and restaurants in Beverly Hills as well as a two percent interest in the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, where she subsequently appeared in a cabaret act for $40,000 a week.

She played her first leading role in 1951 in “Golden Girl” alongside Dale Robertson. Under the headline “A bright new star is born,” the Daily Telegraph critic praised her youth, her fire and her originality. Then came “Bloodhounds of Broadway” with Scott Brady, adapted from a story by Damon Runyon, followed by “There's No Business Like Show Business” (1954) with Dan Dailey and Marilyn Monroe and “Anything Goes” with Bing Crosby.

While filming The Joker Is Wild (1956) with Frank Sinatra, Mitzi Gaynor received a call to audition for South Pacific. Although director Charles Vidor had planned to shoot her critical casino scene that day, Sinatra told her, “We'll work with you – we'll get you this job.” She duly got the role and after appearing in Les Girls (1957) alongside Gene Kelly and Kay Kendall (selected for the Royal Film Performance), she flew to Lumahai Beach on the Hawaiian island of Kaua'i for filming.

“The moment we got off the plane,” she recalled, “we took off the girdles and stockings and the muumuus (loose Hawaiian dresses). And then the next day we got ready for filming.”

Although South Pacific brought her worldwide attention, she was criticized for its lackluster directing and her career stalled.

“After South Pacific I thought I was done – but that was the end of movie musicals,” she said. “Suddenly no one wanted me anymore. And to be honest, I don't think I was particularly good at films. My facial features are nice, but I am not a great beauty. So many things look wrong and I see all my mistakes. I think I was better live or on TV. I’m better as a solo artist.”

She then made three mediocre comedies: “Happy Anniversary” (1959) with David Niven (“A Really Naughty Boy”), the Shepperton production “Surprise Package” (1960) with Yul Brynner and Noël Coward and the romantic comedy “For Love or Money” (1963) with Kirk Douglas, which turned out to be her last Hollywood film.

In February 1964 she made a star appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show as the Beatles appeared on American television for the second time, signing autographs for the star-struck Paul McCartney.

Her role in “South Pacific” earned her a Golden Globe nomination. Always flamboyantly theatrical, she remained a trouper into her 80s, continuing to sing and dance – and winning an Emmy for Mitzi Gaynor: Razzle Dazzle! The special years – despite the mishaps over the years. “I broke all ten toes, both ankles, my pelvis and both knees are shot, but other than that I'm fine,” she explained.

Under the headline “Ancient Hottie Selling Bev Hills Mansion,” a 2013 report said she was selling her 1929 Spanish-style Hollywood hacienda (five beds, six baths, pool, 4,100 square feet, yours for a whopping $5). .5 million US dollars). and added: “Mitzi is 82. The house is 84.”

In 1954 she married Jack Bean, who became her manager, producer and boss; They met on a blind date when she had already appeared in several films, but he claimed he had no idea who she was. He predeceased her in 2006.

Shortly after the wedding, she and Bean visited the El Morocco nightclub in New York to meet the Duke and Duchess of Windsor at the invitation of Ethel Merman, her co-star in There's No Business Like Show Business. As she danced with the little duke, she mischievously recalled: “He fit right into my breasts and started humming, 'I Get A Kick Out Of You.' Bizarre.”

Mitzi Gaynor, born September 4, 1931, died October 17, 2024

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