Mitzi Gaynor, the midcentury Hollywood star who appeared in the movie musicals “South Pacific,” “Les Girls” and “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” died Thursday. She was 93.
In a statement posted to her official X account, Gaynor’s management team, Rene Reyes and Shane Rosamonda, said she “passed away peacefully today of natural causes.”
“For eight decades she entertained audiences in films, on television and on the stage. She truly enjoyed every moment of her professional career and the great privilege of being an entertainer,” Reyes and Rosamonda said. “Off stage, she was a vibrant and extraordinary woman, a caring and loyal friend, and a warm, gracious, very funny and altogether glorious human being. And she could cook too!”
Gaynor, they said, often noted that her audiences were “the sunshine of my life.”
The actor, singer and dancer took up dancing at age 13 with the L.A. Civic Light Opera. She danced in her 20s when filming 1958’s “South Pacific,” in which she played Ensign Nellie Forbush in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical. She also won the hearts of audiences in the 1950s films “Anything Goes” with Bing Crosby and “The Joker Is Wild” with Frank Sinatra.
Later in her career, she endeared herself to younger audiences in many TV specials. She also had a hefty career onstage, notably starring in her annual “Mitzi Gaynor Show” doing stand-up comedy in which she delivered her bits in dialects, one of which she attributed to her father, a cellist born in Hungary. She also appeared in the national tour of “Anything Goes” from 1980 to 1990.
“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,” her team said.
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