Marni Nixon DEAD at 86!

Trivia: her son Andrew Gold wrote "Thank You For Being a Friend"!

Gold died in 2011 at the age of 59 (heart failure). RIP, Marni and Andrew!

Wow, R2, I never knew Andrew Gold had passed away five years ago -- his "Lonely Boy" was one of the AM radio favorites of my youth!

Good riddance! Miss Nixon almost managed to ruin all those classic musicals with her bland voice. And moviegoers back then had to be really dumb not to notice that all the actresses sounded exactly the same when singing.

Guess Andrew Gold isn't such a Lonely Boy anymore.

R4 = Cheeto-stained harlot

Why no BREAKING NEWS headline?

She said cunty things about Natalie on the WSS DVD reissue extras.

r8 Read this interview with Marni about WSS. It sounds like Natalie was the cunt, and the blame should have been placed on the studio and their machinations.

She worked and lived in Seattle. She did a kids show called "Boomerang" and every single person who worked on the show with her said she was a cunt of epic proportions.

Will surely miss this great talent!

Oh, Natalie Wood. *sobs*

I still remember her last words.....

"SPLASH"

At last she's reunited with her husband Dick!

She was actually SEEN as well as heard as the nun Sister Sophia in "The Sound of Music," during the "How Do Ypu Solve a Problem Like Maria?" number.

^^^ You*

[quote]She was actually SEEN as well as heard as the nun Sister Sophia in "The Sound of Music," during the "How Do Ypu Solve a Problem Like Maria?" number.

She was dubbed by Yma Sumac.

I was surprised to see her trending on Twitter, partly because I thought she was already dead, and partly because I wouldn't have expected many people to have heard of her.

She made Andrew a lonely boy.

When I first started watching old movies on TBS or TNT or whatever it was -- some Turner channel pre-TCM -- they had trivia during commercials and Marni Nixon was mentioned a lot. I mentioned it a few times myself in conversations with friends and they always already seemed to know who she was. We were late teens and early 20s in the mid 1990s, so yeah, in retrospect, it IS kind of odd we knew who she was, but most of us did.

I heard an interview on NPR with Marni Nixon and Rita Moreno about West Side Story, and Nixon was quite careful with her response about working with Natalie Wood. Rita Moreno was far more straightforward: "I'm not a fan."

Wood was in over her head and frustrated by her lack of musical/dance talent, and she was unpleasant to be around as a result.

She was grossly miscast on multiple levels.

What year was that NPR interview, r20?

Seems pretty insensitive of Rita Moreno to be so blunt about NW.

Apparently, of Marni's 3 most famous dubbing jobs, Deborah Kerr was the only actress who was totally aware of what was going on and welcomed Marni's participation and even worked with her to provide a seamless transition from dialogue to song. And it paid off.

The other two, Natalie Wood and Audrey Hepburn foolishly thought their own singing voices would be used with just some slight "synthetic sweetening" added into the mix. It's outrageous to think that they could have been so naïve!

I do have to wonder, though, that there weren't professional singers/dubbers around in early 1960s Hollywood to better match the Puerto Rican teenager of Wood and the cockney guttersnipe of Hepburn. Neither is a great match, despite the lovely voice of Nixon's.

Despite her lone above-the-title billing on WSS, Natalie Wood grumpily realized she was just an ensemble member in the making of the film and had little participation (wanted or unwanted) in all the camaraderie and rivalry for Moreno, Beymer, Tamblyn Chakiris and all of the youthful cast, created by Jerry Robbins in the long weeks of dance rehearsals that preceding shooting the film. By the time she joined the filming, she was an outsider.

Natalie was also recovering from the shoot of GYPSY, where Roz Russell upstaged her. She was particularly haunted after Tessie Tura flashed her snatch at her one day.

Are we sure it's really Miss Nixon who has left us?

Everybody unfairly blamed Marni Nixon for ruining the last two seasons of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," but I think people are being overly harsh. Here is Marni providing her singing talents in the musical episode of "Buffy" in one of the most memorable scenes of the entire series!

Tippi Hedren played her in my film. Insufferable cunt.

Thought she died ages ago.

Nixon, Noxon; Marni, Marti; potayto, potahto.

Sad...

My memory of the documentary Hollywood Screen Tests: Take 1 was that Marni was tested for a role in Hello, Dolly! but not cast. However Imdb says that she is the documentary only connected with The Sound of Music.

So your memory is wrong, R21. Get over it.

r29, Let's call the whole thing off!

I wonder if Nixon resented Noxon.

r21, I think they re-broadcast the interview last year.

I believe it was this one from 2001.

And if Wood was unpleasant on the set, I don't see why Nixon and Moreno should pretend otherwise.

[quote]Seems pretty insensitive of Rita Moreno to be so blunt about NW.

You don't know Rita!

I know I do, R34; probably enough for both Nixon and me.

Bump

Was just thinking about Marni, and a Mary Poppins album that Disney released in the 60s, featuring her doing all of Julie songs. I had it as a kid.

I had that album too.

R40 I was confused because even as a child I knew who Julie Andrews was. Many years later, I briefly met Marni. Life is funny.

[quote] Seems pretty insensitive of Rita Moreno to be so blunt about NW.

Not when Natalie's dead.

Both my parents told me that Marni is Julie Andrews’s sister. Don’t know where they got that….

Natalie Wood had an ok voice I suppose, but it wasn't what suits wanted for WSS and that was that.

[quote]Bump

Fuck you.

Starting at 44:24 three stately queens of Hollywood dubbing discuss Westside Story. Long story short there was a whole lot of dubbing gone....

Natalie Wood had it written into her contract for WWS she would pre-record all her own tracks. This was done but Marni Nixon was brought in to do work also to even things out.

Hollywood's other favourite dubber, Margery MacKay worked on Sound of Music as well.

The great Peggy Wood no longer could handle high notes for "Climb Every Mountain" so it was suggested (and the good lady agreed) to Ms. MacKay being brought in... No harm, no foul...

It does perhaps explain why Mother Abbess sings her big number mostly hidden in shadows...

R45 But why? Please explain. In detail.

Sorry, posted wrong link in R46..

Carry on...

R5 He never was in that sense. His father, film composer Ernest Gold died before he did (in 1999).

I've always preferred "Lonely Boy" to "Thank You For Being A Friend", R3.

That's my favorite song in the show, R47. And despite the rest of it being lackluster, I LOVE Audra McDonald's performance of "Climb Ev'ry Mountain". It has been my favorite version since it was released.

hey 49...thanks for sharing the youtube video with charles busch, et al. ... fascinating.

Dead on the 10th year anniversary of her famous son's death.

Fuck it's from 5 years ago. Someone bumped it.

R51

You have no idea how many pastors or whoever in charge of a house of worship has put his foot down over Climb Ev'ry Mountain and a few other songs.

Some frau gets up there and starts clucking fully believing she sounds like Peggy Wood/Mother Abbess . Being a house of the Lord throwing tomatoes, booing, or giving said woman the hook is out.

Wow!

Marni dies twice.

Nine lives or deaths, I guess.

Until watching that clip one had no idea Charles Busch was such an expert on things Hollywood.

R55 Being a theatre person, I can imagine. Though thankfully, I wasn't forced to endure that during my upbringing.

[quote][R45] But why? Please explain. In detail.

Because you "bumped" a fucking 5-year-old death announcement thread for no damn reason, that's why. If you wanted to start a new discussion, pay for a subscription and start a new damn thread.

Since we're on a Sound of Music kick atm.....

OBC from Sound of Music on Ed Sullivan show doing Dixit Dominus Morning Hymn/ Alleluia and Climb Ev'ry Mountain

Anna Lee, Portia Nelson, Marni Nixon, Evadne Baker did honors for film recording.

Richard Beymer is still with us at 83!

No mention of a wife or otherwise involved with females so am taking that as he's family. Well that and he worked closely with Barney Frank in the Freedom Democrat movement.

It is rather interesting but sad in a way that Richard Beymer sang (or said) only one word in song that he made famous; "Maria". Everything else was dubbed byJ im Bryant.

One Hand, One Heart - Natalie Wood 's own voice

Think this is the NPR interview R20 is referring...

Fuck off, R4. Heartless cunt.

Clip of Mari Nixon singing songs from Sound Of Music for versions that would be dubbed for foreign audiences.

Know this is Marni Nixon's thread, but honorable mention goes to Martha Mears who was the "busiest dubber" in Hollywood at some point.

I never liked her bland, vanilla voice that lent absolutely no character. And I didn't even find her tone pleasant to listen to, so I never understood why Hollywood kept using her. She ruined the MFL songs with her boring delivery.

There were so many dubbers; Sally Sweetland, Martha Mears, Eileen Wilson...

R59 Because I thought about Marni and want to discuss her, dolt. Why start a new thread when there's a perfectly good one still functioning, with all the info? Why do people get apoplectic about bumping old threads here? I don't get it. I'm a paid member and can do what I want. If a fucking old Marni Nixon thread upsets you so, discuss it with your therapist.

ANYway. I met Marni outside of an off-Broadway theater after the premiere of a new musical she'd just been in, I forget the name but it was about old people. Cissy Houston was in it, and also the guy on Love Boat who became a congressman. I told Marni I thought the show was great and she was all, "Really? Did you REALLY like it?" I was amazed that Marni Nixon, whose voice I'd listened to in all my favorite movies, seemed so humble.