Marni Nixon (1930-2016)
Monday, July 25, 2016 at 2:53PM It is with a heavy heart that I share the news that Marni Nixon, beloved voice of Hollywood's supersized musicals of the 50s and 60s has died of breast cancer at 86. It was a long and good and musical life, if never celebrated enough by the culture she gave so much to. It had been our long held dream to see her given an Honorary Oscar which must now be a dream unfulfilled. Because I don't have the words today, I thought I'd share a piece I wrote ten years ago on how special Marni Nixon was to me, a baby cinephile growing up with musicals as my favorite form of cinematic bliss.
Marni Nixon is my Kathy Selden
by Nathaniel R
Toward the end of Singin' in the Rain (1952), which chronicles Hollywood's seismic shift from silent films to sound production, a hilariously dim and screechy movie star Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) gets her comeuppance. She has cruelly locked the sweet voiced Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds) into a contract to provide her a suitable movie voice. Lamont is after self-preservation: she can't make sound movies with her own unappealing voice, but she also cruelly takes pleasure in preventing Kathy from pursuing stardom. At a live performance Kathy stands behind a curtain, her dreams in tatters, as she sings for Lina. But Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) pulls the curtain on the act in progress, rescuing his new girl from obscurity and dooming his former co-star to a fast fade.
Singin' in the Rain is many things: a true musical masterpiece, a stellar romantic comedy, and the best movie Hollywood ever made about Hollywood (give or take Sunset Blvd). It's a completely absorbing viewing experience but for this: Every time I see it my mind drifts away to Marni Nixon during this particular scene. Kathy's story isn't exactly Marni's. Marni wasn't forced into submission as the silents were dying. But she was the songbird woman behind the curtain for beloved movie musicals and she was born in 1930 as the silents were emitting their death rattle (Hollywood studios had halted silent film production by 1929. Only a few emerged in movie houses of 30s). Marni Nixon was to be a famous voice but not a famous face ...just like the almost-fate of the fictional Kathy Selden.
Marni started in showbiz early. She sang as a child and though trained in opera her instrument proved extremely versatile. Movie audiences first heard her as the voice of the angels in the Ingrid Bergman version of Joan of Arc (1948). That's a rather appropriate debut since her voice sure is heavenly. But her true claim to movie fame came in that decade long stretch from 1956 through 1965 when she was Kathy Selden to three (non-evil) Lina Lamonts: Deborah Kerr, Natalie Wood, and Audrey Hepburn in The King and I, West Side Story and My Fair Lady respectively. Nixon put the cherry on top of her filmography by appearing in the flesh in The Sound of Music. She was Sister Sophia.
I was obsessed with West Side Story as a child and watched it on TV every chance I got. I don't remember exactly when it was that I was told that Natalie Wood was not doing her own singing but at first I didn't believe it. The singing had the same accent. It sounded like the same voice. That's my Natalie Wood. I was very possessive of my movie stars even as a young brat. It's a mark of both my never ending love for the movie and the generosity of Nixon's career --so much contribution, so little acclaim -- that when I did finally accept this, it didn't diminish my enjoyment of the film but only added to it. Now I had Marni Nixon to love, too.
Robert Wise directs Julie Andrews. Marni Nixon is off to the side as the nun Sister Sophia. She sings the "she waltzes on her way to mass..." line in 'How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?'
I think it bears noting that she is a true actress in song. You can occasionally hear the seams from her voice to the actresses (I blame the sound work of the time) but she was doing difficult work with laser like precision, looping and adapting her instrument to the vocal tones, accents, and lip movements of non-trained singers. All that plus she was truly acting the songs, lending matriarchal warmth to The King and I, reinforcing the flush of new love for West Side Story -- boy can you hear Maria falling deeper and deeper -- and aiding in Hepburn's transformation from street urchin to high society prize in My Fair Lady.
If that weren't enough, Nixon was doing touch up work for still more actresses. She sang for Margaret O'Brien, Janet Leigh, and even this: it's reportedly Nixon's voice you're hearing when Marilyn Monroe belts out the one line "these rocks don't lose their shape" during "Diamond's are a Girls' Best Friend." Marni Nixon even played the animated geese in Mary Poppins. Basically it's like this: Only with your DVDs on mute can you watch a 50s or 60s movie musical without Marni Nixon secretly contributing to your enjoyment. She's a stealth giver.
Marni was the first non-movie star / non-director that I recognized as important to the cinema. I knew her name before I ever became devoted to watching end credits or following the careers of costume designers and cinematographers. She's come to represent to me all the unsung backstage heroes and heroines of film, the thousands of unfamiliar names and faces that help shape these great things we call movies.
In addition to the movie work she toured with both Liberace and Victor Borge and her son even composed the Golden Girls theme song "Thank You For Being a Friend". (Craziness!) After the reign of the movie musicals she taught voice lessons and occassionally performed.
Sometimes wandering around New York City, where she lived for decades, I wondered if I'd ever passed her on the street without even blinking, her face being unfamiliar but that chameleon voice, a thrilling transcendent soprano, completely embedded in my soul. I heard it around the family stereo (we had the vinyl on all of her musicals), I heard it in repertory movie houses in Detroit (her musicals were sell outs), I hear it now whenever I think about movie musicals (often). I've been hearing it my entire life. That Joan of Arc production got it right. She'll go on singing as the voice of the angels.
Reader Comments (16)
One of the most underappreciated contributors to cinema history, her voice will live on forever.
Her late son, Andrew Gold, also played the guitar on many of Linda Ronstadt's early rock hits. That's him on "You're No Good." He also had a top 10 pop hit of his own, ''Lonely Boy.":
Goddess
Thank you.
Patryk: Andrew Gold came from music greats on both sides: his father was Ernest Gold, the film composer best remembered for his Oscar-winning score for "Exodus" (1960).
I sincerely thought of you Nathaniel the moment I read this news. What a fascinating life.
Yet another hit in this year that seems to be relentless with taking notables from all areas of the performing arts but what an amazing legacy she leaves behind.
Her singing in My Fair Lady is just.... oh.... outstanding. She's one of the reasons why I love that film.
I grew up like you Nathaniel, loving the musicals she voiced. What a wonderful gift of song. RIP
What a Lady. Made everyone sound so much better. Especially
Natalie Wood.
What a Lady. Made everyone sound so much better. Especially
Natalie Wood.
Rest in Peace Miss Nixon.
You will live forever as the voice of great musical movies!
The least Hollywood could do for her now is put her on that In Memoriam segment at the Oscars.
2016 continues to be a bad year for entertainment. Now I am praying for the long lives of Sondheim and Betty White.
Thanks Nat for bringing this gem of a voice to my knowledge. I still thought Natalie Wood did her own singing in WSS before reading this. Wow..she's a legend in her own right.
What lovely words, Nathaniel. A fitting tribute to a great talent.
Yes........Ms Nixon DESERVES a long o/due Honorary Oscar!!! Her talented voice surely contributed in a large part to WWS & MFL winning Best Pic......It still not too late to honor her at next year's ceremony. Hope the board IS listening
RIP Marni - may angels (such as yourself) sing thee to thy rest.
This piece is so beautiful to read, and sums a lot of my own feelings about her. Imagine having to do so much iconic, difficult work in secret. And even more remarkably, she never appeared bitter or resentful of her lack of onscreen credit, but always seemed just as angelic as that golden voice. She will live forever through those famous soundtracks.
Beautiful article. What a spectacular voice, one of the greatest ever recorded. What a family legacy. Her husband Ernest Gold wrote one of the most brilliant film scores ever with his work on Exodus. And their son Andrew's hit Lonely Boy, in keeping with our 1977 theme, was one of the best pop songs of that year.