Marni Nixon, the voice behind, among others, Deborah Kerr in The King and I and An Affair to Remember, Natalie Wood in West Side Story, and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, will be honored at New York City's Film Forum on Monday, February 23 at 7:30 pm. Nixon, who turns 79 the day before the tribute, will be present for an onstage interview about her seven-decade career. The interview will be conducted by musical theater writer Stephen Cole, co-author of Nixon's autobiography I Could Have Sung All Night, and Film Forum's Director of Repertory Programming Bruce Goldstein. Admission is $20 ($10 for Film Forum members).
Every time Marni Nixon's name comes up I think of the Singin' in the Rain finale, in which Debbie Reynolds, hiding behind a stage curtain, dubs cockatiel-voiced silent-film star Jean Hagen. After all, Nixon worked in (semi)anonymity in Hollywood, as studio contracts reportedly forbade her identity from being revealed.
In addition to the aforementioned actresses, Nixon, dubbed by Time magazine "the ghostess with the mostest," provided melodious singing voices to the likes of Margaret O'Brien in The Secret Garden and Jeanne Crain in Cheaper by the Dozen. She also hummed for Janet Leigh, provided angelic voices for Ingrid Bergman to hear in Joan of Arc, and dubbed the coloratura parts of Marilyn Monroe's "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" number from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
On screen, she sang as Sister Sophia in The Sound of Music. (Despite stories to the contrary, Nixon wrote in her autobio that Margery McKay was the singer who sang "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" for Peggy Wood.)
Off-screen, Nixon has been a success on the musical theater, concert, and opera stages, working with Igor Stravinsky, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Pierre Boulez, Charles Ives, and Arnold Schoenberg — plus Victor Borge, Liberace, and Lawrence Welk.
In recent years, Nixon appeared on Broadway in James Joyce's The Dead, Follies, Nine, and in the City Center's concert version of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's Music in the Air.
Not surprisingly, she also happens to be a popular vocal coach.
Copies of I Could Have Sung All Night will be available for sale at Film Forum; Nixon and Cole will be on hand to sign copies in the lobby following the event.
Click here to purchase tickets online. Tickets are currently available for Film Forum members only. Non-member tickets available online beginning Tuesday, February 17.
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The most impressive thing about Marni Nixon's dubbing is that she somehow was able to adjust her voice to that of the actresses she was dubbing. For the most part, I find it impossible to tell when Deborah Kerr's voice ends and Nixon's begin. Or Audrey Hepburn's.
Interesting. I'd always thought that Marni Nixon had dubbed Peggy Wood's voice in "The Sound of Music."
Her voice helped make "My Fair Lady" a success, except perhaps for Audrey Hepburn who missed out on an Oscar nomination for having "stolen" Julie Andrews' role.