As the voice of Maria in 'West Side Story' and Eliza Doolittle in 'My Fair Lady', Marni Nixon should have been one of Hollywood's biggest stars. Instead, other actors got the credit and she became American cinema's 'most unsung singer', writes Alexandra Pollard.
Did Audrey Hepburn do any of her own singing in My Fair Lady?
Hepburn got the part over Julie Andrews for the role of Eliza Doolittle, despite the fact she couldn't sing. She took singing lessons in an attempt to improve, but still couldn't cut it. As a result, Marni Nixon was drafted in to perform the vocals instead.
Kerr's singing was dubbed by Marni Nixon, who also dubbed for Kerr in the film The King and I. "An Affair to Remember" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1957 but lost out to "All the Way". The song has since become a jazz standard.
But the early 1960's was the major time for Marni Nixon as the Singing Voice of the Stars - for Natalie Wood in 1961's West Side Story and for Audrey Hepburn, in My Fair Lady. "With dubbing," Nixon said, "you have to feel the people you're singing for are your friends.
"MY FAIR LADY"/"Wouldn't It Be Loverly?" - AUDREY HEPBURN
How old was Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady?
Love Won Out. At first Warner thought that Rex Harrison, who turned 56 in 1964, looked too old to be the love interest of the 19-year-old Eliza Doolittle character.
Why didn't they let Audrey Hepburn sing in My Fair Lady?
When Audrey Hepburn (Eliza Doolittle) was first informed that her voice wasn't strong enough and that she would have to be dubbed, she walked out. She returned the next day and, in a typically graceful Hepburn gesture, apologized to everybody for her "wicked behavior."
Higgins denies any difference in treatment, and Eliza announces she will marry Freddy because he loves her. She says she was foolish to think she needed Higgins and will never see him again ("Without You"). Henry Higgins realizes his attachment to Eliza ("I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face").
However, when studio executives informed her that Elizabeth Taylor would play Eliza Doolittle if she didn't accept it, Hepburn decided to take the job. Although the actress was admired for her girl next door beauty and classy composure, her singing voice proved subpar for the film.
Cast in the lead of the musical, as Dr. Henry Higgins, was legendary leading man Rex Harrison. Opposite him, as Eliza Doolittle, was a young (age 21) Julie Andrews, who just a season before had been a sensation in Broadway's “The Boyfriend.” Rounding out the cast was Stanley Holloway and Cathleen Nesbitt.
Did Audrey Hepburn sing in Breakfast at Tiffany's?
Truly Audrey Hepburn (as "Holly Golightly") singing, the Oscar-winning tune written by Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer to suit her voice, "Moon River," serenading her writer neighbor and maybe-boyfriend Paul (George Peppard) in Blake Edwards' Breakfast At Tiffany's, 1961.
How old was Audrey Hepburn during the filming of My Fair Lady?
Although playing a 21-year-old flower girl, Hepburn was actually 34 in real life. The opera that was playing the night Professor Higgins and Eliza meet in Covent Gardens was Faust.
Which cast of My Fair Lady sang for Audrey Hepburn?
As the voice of Maria in 'West Side Story' and Eliza Doolittle in 'My Fair Lady', Marni Nixon should have been one of Hollywood's biggest stars. Instead, other actors got the credit and she became American cinema's 'most unsung singer', writes Alexandra Pollard.
How much was Audrey Hepburn paid for My Fair Lady?
Audrey Hepburn had the star power the studio wanted for their adaption of My Fair Lady, and she received approximately 1.1 million dollars for the role – even more than Elizabeth Taylor had for 1963's Cleopatra.
This depiction is important because Shaw maintains later in his epilogue that one of the reasons for Eliza's rejection of the possibility of marriage to Higgins is that she could never live up to Mrs. Higgins' standards, that she could never equal Mrs. Higgins' grasp of life.
Well, the point comes in the last scene. In the original, you'll recall, Eliza — after rebelling against the manipulative professor who has picked her off the streets and turned her into a “lady” — returns to Higgins, for a (sort of) happy ending.
Henry Higgins did remain in Eliza Doolittle's life, but Shaw was insistent on the fact that they were no match romantically, that they remained purely friends who saw each other as sparring partners in wit and cleverness.
Why didn't Audrey Hepburn win an Oscar for My Fair Lady?
Warner didn't think she was "known" enough as a movie actress. Many felt that this snub, as well as Audrey Hepburn's singing being dubbed, led to Hepburn's not being nominated for the Best Actress for the Oscar nomination.
In December 1992, she received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of her work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. A month later, she died of appendiceal cancer at her home in Tolochenaz, Vaud, Switzerland, at the age of 63.
She was married to Ferrer until 1968, and during the marriage, Hepburn gave birth to her first child. In 1969, Hepburn married a psychiatrist named Andrea Dotti. She gave birth to her second child in 1970. According to a profile in People Magazine, Hepburn had five miscarriages during her lifetime.
My Fair Lady, American musical film, released in 1964, that was adapted from the long-running Broadway musical of the same name and proved to be a great popular and critical success. The movie, which starred Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn, won eight Academy Awards, including that for best picture.
How old was Julie Andrews when she was in My Fair Lady?
When My Fair Lady opened on Broadway 60 years ago—on Mar. 15, 1956—TIME's reviewer called it “a delight” and noted that “Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews play Higgins and Eliza to perfection.” As related by the article, the then-20-year-old Andrews had been singing since the age of 8.
Doolittle, though, is always assumed to have been an entirely fictional character; the romantic dream, initially, of the playwright George Bernard Shaw and then, later, the heroine of the hit Lerner and Loewe musical, My Fair Lady.
