Overview (4)

Mini Bio (1)

Spouse (3)

Trivia (19)

Hosted "Boomerang," a Seattle children's TV show.



Started out at the age of four as a violinist and had a singing act with her sisters by age eight.



She starred in her own local children's TV show in Seattle entitled "Boomerang" in the late 70s and early 80s and won four Emmys for her efforts.





Of her three children, Andrew Gold is a rock musician, composer and producer; daughter Martha Gold Carr is a psychologist; and Melanie Gold is a singer and songwriter.



When Harvey Fierstein was asked who should play the lead in a film adaptation of the musical "La Cage Aux Folles", he replied: "Me! Dubbed by Marni Nixon!".

Replaced Joan Roberts as Heidi Schiller (who sings "One More Kiss") in the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's "Follies" [May 2001]



Performed as the Mother Superior in The Sound of Music at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. [July 2006]



Performed in a concert run ('The Voice of Hollywood') that toured the US. [June 2003]



Playing Mrs. Higgins (Prof. Higgins' mother) in a touring production of My Fair Lady. [March 2008]



Although she never dubbed the voice of Julie Andrews, Marni Nixon sang the role of Mary Poppins on the kids' version (Disneyland label) of the music from the film.



Twentieth Century-Fox insisted Marni Nixon sign a contract that she would not reveal that she dubbed any part of Deborah Kerr's vocals in "The king and I" (1956). Were she to do so, the studio threatened that they would see to it that she never worked "in this town (i.e., Hollywood) again." Deborah Kerr, who worked extremely closely - and extremely well - with Nixon thought this was very unfair and it was Miss Kerr herself who revealed the secret of the dubbing in an interview with the popular syndicated columnist Earl Wilson.



In 1965, Marni appeared on the popular show "To Tell The Truth' as a participant. Half the panel which consisted of Tom Poston, Peggy Cass, Orson Bean and Kitty Carlyle were fooled.



Of her three best-known dubbing jobs - Anna in "The king and I", Maria in "West side story", and Eliza in "My fair lady" - only with Deborah Kerr was Nixon able to establish a warm personal and professional rapport. The following year (1957), Nixon again dubbed Kerr's vocals, this time in "An Affair to Remember", in which Kerr was portraying a successful night club singer.



Personal Quotes (5)



[on dubbing for Natalie Wood in West Side Story (1961)] I knew that I would never be cast physically in the role of Maria. In the picture they wanted Maria to sound like a sixteen-year-old and they kept trying out Natalie's voice. Natalie was perfectly musical, but I had the feeling that it was only gradually when they started working with her that they said to themselves, "I don't think she is able to do it at all". I was hanging around and not knowing how much of my voice was going to be used except for a few high notes that she knew she couldn't sustain. In the end, Natalie recorded everything to her own takes and sometimes was even out of synch. My main job was to fix up all the inconsistencies of her original recordings. I had to loop all the vocals after the film was finished.

[from an interview in 1964] It's fascinating, getting inside the actresses you're singing for. It's like cutting off the top of their heads and seeing what's underneath. You have to know how they feel, as well as how they talk, in order to sing as they would sing -- if they could sing.



[from an interview in 1981] It got so I'd lent my voice to so many others that I felt it no longer belonged to me. It was eerie; I had lost part of myself.





[from an interview in 2007] You always had to sign a contract that nothing would be revealed. Twentieth Century Fox, when I did Der König und Ich (1956), threatened me. They said, "If anybody ever knows that you did any part of the dubbing for Deborah Kerr , we'll see to it that you won't work in town again."