Mitzi Gaynor

Legendary musical performer MITZI GAYNOR has been in show business over sixty years beginning her career at the age of twelve in the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera. She transitioned from stage to screen at age nineteen with her first film role opposite Betty Grable in My Blue Heaven. She starred in 17 motion pictures including There’s No Business Like Show Business (with Ethel Merman and Marilyn Monroe), Anything Goes (with Bing Crosby and Donald O’Connor), Les Girls (with Gene Kelly), The Joker is Wild (with Frank Sinatra), Surprise Package (with Yul Brynner and Noel Coward), For Love or Money (with Kirk Douglas) and the blockbuster adaptation of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific (earning a Golden Globe® nomination for her role as Ensign Nellie Forbush.) Mitzi first took the concert and nightclub world by storm in 1961 at Las Vegas’ fabulous Flamingo Hotel. Her debut was met with overwhelming acclaim - Life Magazine noted “Gaynor started at the top and climbed even higher”, The Los Angeles Times called her “The nation’s number one female song and dance star”¬ - and for the next four decades Mitzi would tour the U.S. and Canada with a high-energy concert act that would solidify her reputation as one of the greatest live performers of the era. She began her long association with famed costume designer Bob Mackie in 1966. Mitzi was the first star client for whom he designed an entire show. He continues to design the lavish, razzle-dazzle costumes that remain a staple of her performing career. A highly-sought after guest on the nation’s top television programs, Mitzi made several memorable appearances in the medium, including a 1964 appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, in which she had top billing over The Beatles. She also performed to great acclaim on several Academy Awards broadcasts where her show-stopping 1967 rendition of Best Song nominee Georgy Girl, before a TV audience of 65 million, was met by wildly enthusiastic applause. Mitzi’s successful Academy Awards appearance and an equally popular holiday installment of television’s Kraft Musical Hall titled The Mitzi Gaynor Christmas Show, led to an avalanche of inquiries from virtually every network offering the dynamic performer television series and specials of her own. In October of 1968 she fulfilled those requests with the premiere of the aptly titled Mitzi. The special debuted to blockbuster ratings and unanimous critical acclaim. The Los Angeles Times called it “glittering perfection…a kind of ultimate statement of that particular TV format.” Over the next ten years, she would continue to showcase her magical brand of dazzling showmanship in eight spectacular hours of non-stop entertainment including Mitzi…and a Hundred Guys, Mitzi…Zings Into Spring, Mitzi…Roarin’ in the 20’s and more, garnering six Emmy® Awards and seventeen Emmy® Award nominations. Despite a career marked by extraordinary achievement, Mitzi remains in search of new horizons to conquer. She can be seen in her new one woman show, Razzle Dazzle! My Life Behind the Sequins: an Intimate Evening of Laughs, Love & Music. The show is currently on a national tour and recently completed an acclaimed New York engagement. In reviewing the show, The New York Times called her “an all time great” and Rex Reed of the New York Observer noted “Glamorous, Colossal and one of a kind, Mitzi Gaynor is the real deal.” She was recently awarded several honors including the 2010 NATAS Emmy® Award for her PBS musical documentary, Mitzi Gaynor: Razzle Dazzle! The Special Years, which focused on her annual television specials; “The Bob Harrington Lifetime Achievement Award” at the 25th Annual Bistro Awards; the “2009 Entertainer of the Year” at the 28th Annual Tremaine Dance Gala; The Boston Youth Moves “Lifetime Achievement Award”; and The Chapman University “Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award." Visit www.MissMitziGaynor.com for more info. Official Facebook Page for Mitzi Gaynor. Entertainer, Cook, Gypsy