Mitzi Gaynor, the actor, singer and dancer who starred in 1950s Hollywood musicals like South Pacific And There's no business like show business before conquering the Las Vegas stage and appearing on television variety specials, has died, her management team announced today. She was 93.

“As we celebrate her legacy, we thank her friends and fans and the countless viewers she entertained throughout her long life,” Rene Reyes and Shane Rosamonda of Gaynor’s MGMT team said today in the statement announcing her death announced.

The entire statement can be found below.

The statement added: “We take great comfort in the fact that her creative legacy continues through her many magical performances captured on film and video, through her recordings, and especially through the love and support she has received from audiences all over the place the world has shown so generously will continue.” her life and her career. Please keep Mitzi in your thoughts and prayers.”

Gaynor was born Francesca Marlene de Czanyi von Gerber in Chicago on September 4, 1931, and rose to national fame in the early 1950s as the star of Hollywood's new wave of musicals, e.g There's no business like show business (1954), Everything is possible (1956) with Bing Crosby and Donald O'Connor; And Les Girls (1957) with Gene Kelly.

In the same year as Les GirlsGaynor was cast in one of her most memorable roles as the girlfriend of nightclub comedian Joe E. Lewis (played by Frank Sinatra). The Joker is wild.

But her star role came in 1958 when she was cast as Nellie Forbush in the film adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's film South Pacific. In her Golden Globe-nominated performance, Gaynor was treated to one of the musical's most popular numbers: “I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair.”

By the end of the decade, Gaynor had also made her way into TV variety shows, and in 1968 she starred in her first NBC special, Simply. Mitzi. Gaynor and her show were so popular that she became a fixture on television in the 1970s, hosting the annual variety specials on CBS from 1973 to 1978.

Gaynor made many guest appearances on other variety shows, perhaps most notably on the episode of ” The Ed Sullivan Showwhich coincidentally also saw the Beatles perform for the second time. During the episode, Gaynor performed like The Beatles from the stage of the Deauville Hotel in Miami Beach. Her nine-minute segment, including her memorable performance by Cole Porter Too damn hot.

In addition to her television career, Gaynor was an extremely popular nightclub and Vegas performer. Her Vegas breakthrough came in 1961 with her show at the Flamingo Hotel, which reportedly broke box office records and reportedly made Gaynor the highest-paid entertainer in the city. She remained active as a Las Vegas, nightclub and touring artist for most of her life, with her later career including a tour from 2008 to 2011 Mitzi…Razzle Dazzle! My life behind the sequins.

Gaynor married Jack Bean, the man who would be her husband and manager until his death in 2006. The couple had no children. Information on survivors was not immediately available.

VIDEO ON THE TOPIC ON THE TOPIC: