Mitzi Gaynor, Star of South Pacific, Dead at 93

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4:54 P.M.

By
Jason P. Frank,
a Vulture writer covering comedy, theater, and music

Photo: Jack Tinney/Getty Images

Mitzi Gaynor, the triple-threat performer best known for starring in the film version of South Pacific, died at 93 on October 17. She married her manager, Jack Bean, in 1954 and remained with him until his death in 2006. They had no children. “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,” her management, Rene Reyes and Shane Rosamonda, wrote on X. “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 was born in Chicago in 1931 to a dancer mother and a cellist father, beginning dance classes at 8 and signing her first film contract at 17. Her first film was the musical My Blue Heaven in 1950, in which she played a supporting role. The next year, she had her first starring role, Lotta Crabtree, in Golden Girl. In 1958, Gaynor was cast in her most famous part: Nellie Forbush in South Pacific. The film was an adaptation of the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical of the same name, and Gaynor was nominated for a Golden Globe for it. The role was intended to go to Mary Martin, who played it on Broadway, but her stage co-star Ezio Pinza died and the producers decided to recast, per TCM. After a search that included Doris Day (deemed not spontaneous enough) and Elizabeth Taylor (deemed incapable of singing), Gaynor was chosen. She was the only one of the four leads who did her own singing. In 2024, Gaynor called the movie “the be-all and end-all in my career.”

Gaynor made only four movies after South Pacific, instead turning to TV as movie musicals decreased in popularity throughout the ’60s. She made nine TV variety specials from 1967 to 1978. Perhaps her most notable performance outside South Pacific, however, was as the headliner on the episode of the Ed Sullivan Show that featured the Beatles’ now-iconic performance. “On the bill with me that night were, The Beatles!” Gaynor posted on social media in 2019. “Believe it or don’t, my nearly 15 minute segment was called lascivious the next day … little me, lascivious. What fun.”

Mitzi Gaynor, Star of South Pacific, Dead at 93