Mitzi Gaynor, Golden Age Musical Star of South Pacific and More, Dies at 93

Mitzi Gaynor, a star from the golden age of Hollywood musicals known for roles in There’s No Business Like Show Business and South Pacific, has died. Her death, from natural causes, was confirmed by her team in a statement. She was 93.

“As we celebrate her legacy, we offer our thanks to her friends and fans and the countless audiences she entertained throughout her long life,” her management team said in a statement shared on X. 

“Your love, support and appreciation meant so very much to her and was a sustaining gift in her life. She often noted that her audiences were ‘the sunshine of my life.’ You truly were. We take great comfort in the fact that her creative legacy will endure through her many magical performances captured on film and video, through her recordings and especially through the love and support audiences around the world have shared so generously with her throughout her life and career. Please keep Mitzi in your thoughts and prayers.”

Gaynor was born Francesca Marlene de Czanyi von Gerber in Chicago in 1931. Daughter to a musician father and dancer mother, she knew she wanted to become a performer by the age of 9 after she was taken to see Carmen Miranda in the stage revue The Streets of Paris. “I was mesmerized!” she told Closer earlier this year. “I remember telling my mother, ‘I can do that. I want to do that.’ From that moment on, everything became about making ‘Tootie’—my childhood nickname—a star.” She embarked on ballet training and was performing in shows around Los Angeles by the age of 11.

Signing a contract with Twentieth Century-Fox at age 17—and changing her name at the behest of a studio executive—Gaynor made her film debut in a supporting role in the musical My Blue Heaven (1950). More musical roles followed in rapid succession: Golden Girl (1951); Bloodhounds of Broadway (1952); Down Among the Sheltering Palms (1953); There’s No Business Like Show Business (1954), featuring Ethel Merman and Marilyn Monroe; and Anything Goes (1956), co-starring Bing Crosby. She married Jack Bean, a talent agent and public relations executive for MCA who masterminded her career, in 1954. Bean died in 2006.

Gaynor’s most famous role came in 1958, playing Nellie Forbush in the musical film adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific. She was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960. The wane of the era of the Hollywood movie musical meant that she made her final notable film role just three years later in For Love or Money, co-starring Kirk Douglas.

She remained in the public eye by redirecting her energies to television variety shows such as The Frank Sinatra Show and The Ed Sullivan Show. Notably, Gaynor was the headline act on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 when The Beatles made their second live appearance on U.S. television. Later in the decade, she starred in her own standalone song-and-dance specials—Mitzi… A Tribute to the American Housewife; Mitzi & 100 Guys; Mitzi… What's Hot, What's Not and more—outfitted by star costumier Bob Mackie.

“My legs looked better in a [sic] very high heels," Gaynor told EW in 2021.

Later in her career, Gaynor performed in nightclubs around the U.S.—making her Manhattan nightclub debut in 2010, age 78, in her show Razzle Dazzle! My Life Behind the Sequins—and served as a featured columnist for the Hollywood Reporter.

When Amazon Prime offered Gaynor’s TV specials in 2021, Gaynor told EW she was looking forward to rewatching her work—if only someone could help her with a subscription. “I swear to God, I'm not a streamer. I need someone to come over and plug something in and fix it for me so I can have it on 24-7.”

Gaynor was highly active on Facebook in recent years, posting her last message to her followers after her 92nd birthday in 2023:

Thank you for all of the beautiful birthday wishes…To quote an Arthur Freed that’s very special to me…

‘Why am I smiling and why do I sing?
Why does December seem sunny as spring?
Why do I get up each morning and start?
Happy and head up with joy in my heart…’
It’s because of all of you!!!

Love ya,
Mitzi