Mitzi Gaynor
| Mitzi Gaynor | |
|---|---|
Mitzi Gaynor, c. 1954
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| Born |
Francesca Marlene de Czanyi von Gerber September 4, 1931 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress, dancer, entertainer |
| Years active | 1949–present |
| Spouse(s) | Jack Bean (married 1954–2006) |
| Website | www |
Mitzi Gaynor (born September 4, 1931) is an American actress, singer, and dancer.
Gaynor was born as Francesca Marlene de Czanyi von Gerber in Chicago to Pauline Fisher, a dancer, and Henry von Gerber, a violinist, cellist, and music director. After her father remarried, she became step-sister to anti-war activist Donald W. Duncan.
Her family first moved to Elgin, Illinois, then to Detroit, and later when she was eleven, on to Hollywood. She trained as a ballerina as a child and began her career as a chorus dancer. At 13, she was singing and dancing with the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera company. She lied about her address so she could attend Hollywood High School, and signed a seven-year contract with Twentieth Century-Fox at age 17. She sang, acted, and danced in a number of film musicals, often paired with some of the biggest male musical stars of the day. A Fox Studio executive thought that Mitzi Gerber sounded like the name of a delicatessen, and they came up with a name that used the same initials.
Notable films included There's No Business Like Show Business (1954), which featured Irving Berlin's music and also starred Ethel Merman, Dan Dailey, Marilyn Monroe, Donald O'Connor, and Johnnie Ray; and South Pacific, the 1958 motion picture adaptation of the stage musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein.
She married Jack Bean, a talent agent and public relations executive for MCA, in San Francisco, California, on November 18, 1954. They resided on North Arden Drive in Beverly Hills, California. She had just been released from Twentieth Century-Fox (before the start of There's No Business Like Show Business) with four years left on her contract and decided with the time off to get married. The union was childless. After their marriage, Bean quit MCA and started his own real estate business and managed Gaynor's career.
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