THE VOICE Behind the Stars

THE SINGER SECRETLY PERFORMED IN SOME OF AMERICA'S MOST BELOVED MUSICALS

-  —Louise A. Barile and Katie Bruno

As a teenager, Marni Nixon worked in the mailroom at MGM Studios and dreamed of singing. “She delivered the mail to all the stars,” explains her friend Stephen Cole to Closer. “MGM knew that she was a good singer. They kept telling her, ‘If Jane Powell ever [quits] a film, we'll think about you.”

DEBORAH KERR After Marni supplied Deborah's singing voice for 1956's The King and I, the actress broke with convention by publicly crediting her.

Marni never replaced Jane, but she did become the singing voice of Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, Deborah Kerr in The King and I and Natalie Wood in West Side Story. She helped Marilyn Monroe hit the high notes in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes too. “Marni made a big contribution to film history even though at that time her work was a complete secret,” says Cole, who co-authored the performer's memoir, I Could Have Sung All Night: My Story.