Marni Nixon
Marni Nixon (born February 22, 1930) is an American soprano and playback singer for featured actresses in movie musicals. She is most famous for dubbing the singing voices of the leading actresses in films, including The King and I, West Side Story, and My Fair Lady.
Nixon's varied career has included, besides her voice work in films, some film roles of her own, television, opera, concerts with major symphony orchestras around the world, musicals on stage throughout the United States and recordings.
Early life
Born Margaret Nixon McEathron in Altadena, California, to Charles Nixon and Margaret Elsa (née Wittke) McEathron, Nixon was a child actress and also began singing at an early age in choruses, including performing solos with the Roger Wagner Chorale.
She went on to study singing and opera with Thomas Noble MacBurney, Carl Ebert, Jan Popper, Boris Goldovsky and Sarah Caldwell.
Career
Early films and musicals
Nixon's career on film started in 1948 when she sang the voices of the angels heard by Ingrid Bergman in Joan of Arc (1948). The same year, she did her first dubbing work when she provided Margaret O'Brien's singing voice in 1948's Big City and then 1949's The Secret Garden. She also dubbed Marilyn Monroe's high notes in Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). She appeared on Broadway in 1954 in The Girl in Pink Tights.
Podcasts:
Marni Nixon
ALBUMS
- Songs / Orchestral Sets / From the Steeples and Mountains released: 2008
Songs / Orchestral Sets / From the Steeples and Mountains
Released 2008- The Greatest Man
- At the River
- Ann Street
- Christmas Carol
- From 'The Swimmers'
- West London
- Soliloquy
- Evening
- Charlie Rutlage
- Side Show
- The Cage
- Farewell to Land
- General William Booth Enters into Heaven
- Set No. 1 for small orchestra: I. The See'r
- Set No. 1 for small orchestra: II. A Lecture
- Set No. 1 for small orchestra: III. The Ruined River
- Set No. 1 for small orchestra: IV. Like a Sick Eagle
- Set No. 1 for small orchestra: V. Calcium Light Night
- Set No. 1 for small orchestra: VI. 'When the Moon' or Allegretto sombreoso
- Tone Roads No. 1
- From the Steeples and the Mountains
- Tone Roads No. 3
- Set No. 3 for small orchestra: I. Adagio sostenuto 'At Sea'
- Mists
- On the Antipodes
- The Rainbow (So may it be!)
- The Pond
- The Bells of Yale, or Chapel Chimes
- The Gong on the Hook and Ladder ('Fireman's Parade on Main street')
- All the Way Around and Back
- Over the Pavements
- Set No. 2 for small orchestra: I. Largo 'The Indians'
- Set No. 2 for small orchestra: II. 'Gyp the Blood', or 'Hearst - Which is Worst?'
- Aeschylus and Sophocles
- Set for Theater or Chamber Orchestra: I. In the Cage
- Set for Theater or Chamber Orchestra: II. In the Inn
- Set for Theater or Chamber Orchestra: III. In the Night
