Incubator escapee wiki

Nanette Fabray

Article Discussion

Template:Use American English Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:More citations needed Template:Infobox person

File:Nanette Fabray - 1950.jpg
Fabray in 1950

Nanette Fabray (born Ruby Bernadette Nanette Theresa Fabares;<ref name=":0" /> October 27, 1920 – February 22, 2018) was an American actress, singer and dancer. She began her career performing in vaudeville as a child and became a musical-theatre actress during the 1940s and 1950s, acclaimed for her role in High Button Shoes (1947) and winning a Tony Award in 1949 for her performance in Love Life. In the mid-1950s, she served as Sid Caesar's comic partner on Caesar's Hour, for which she won three Emmy Awards, and appeared with Fred Astaire in the film musical The Band Wagon. From 1979 to 1984, she played Katherine Romano, the mother of lead character Ann Romano, on the TV series One Day at a Time. She also appeared as the mother of Christine Armstrong (played by her niece Shelley Fabares) in the television series Coach.

Fabray had significant hearing impairment and was a longtime advocate for the rights of the deaf and hearing-impaired people. Her honors included the President's Distinguished Service Award and the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award.

Early lifeEdit

Fabray was born Ruby Bernadette Nanette Theresa Fabares on October 27, 1920, in San Diego, California to Lily Agnes (McGovern), a housewife, and Raoul Bernard Fabares, a train conductor.<ref name="NYT 2018">Template:Cite news</ref>

She used one of her middle names, Nanette, as her first name in honor of a beloved aunt from San Diego named Nanette. Throughout life, she often used the nickname Nan.<ref name=":0">Template:CitationTemplate:Cbignore</ref> Her family resided in Los Angeles, and Fabray's mother was instrumental in introducing her to showbusiness as a child. At a young age, she studied tap dance with, among others, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. She made her professional stage debut as Miss New Year's Eve 1923 at the Million Dollar Theater at the age of three.<ref name="USAT 2018">Template:Cite news</ref> She spent much of her childhood appearing in vaudeville productions as a dancer and singer under the name Baby Nan. She appeared with stars such as Ben Turpin.

Despite her mother's influence, Fabray was not interested in showbusiness as a young girl. Consequently, as an adult she did not believe in pushing children into performing at a young age.<ref name=":0" /> However, because of her early dance training, Fabray considered herself to be primarily a tap dancer.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Despite a persistent rumor, she was never a regular or recurring guest in the Our Gang series, but she did appear as an extra during a party scene.<ref name=":0" />

Fabray's parents divorced when she was nine, but they continued living together for financial reasons. During the Great Depression, her mother converted their home into a boarding house, which Fabray and her siblings helped to run, and her main job was ironing clothes.<ref name=":0" /> In her early teenage years, Fabray attended the Max Reinhardt School of the Theatre on a scholarship. She then attended Hollywood High School, participating in the drama program and graduating in 1939.<ref name=":0" /> She bested classmate Alexis Smith for the lead in the school play during her senior year. Fabray entered Los Angeles Junior College in the fall of 1939, but she did not fare well and withdrew a few months later.<ref name=":0" />

Fabray experienced difficulty in school because of an undiagnosed hearing impairment. She was later diagnosed with conductive hearing loss related to congenital, progressive otosclerosis in her twenties after an acting teacher encouraged her to have her hearing tested. Fabray said of the experience, "It was a revelation to me. All these years I had thought I was stupid, but in reality, I just had a hearing problem."

In 2004, Fabray was interviewed<ref name=":0" /> for the oral-history project of the Archives of American Television.<ref>The video interview can be seen at https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/nanette-fabray.</ref>

CareerEdit

File:Pearl Bailey Nanette Fabray Arms and the Girl 1950.jpg
Pearl Bailey and Nanette Fabray in the Broadway musical Arms and the Girl (1950)
File:The Band Wagon (1953) trailer 3.jpg
The cast of The Band Wagon (1953) L–R: Oscar Levant, Cyd Charisse, Jack Buchanan, Fred Astaire, and Nanette Fabray

TheatreEdit

At the age of 19, Fabray made her feature-film debut as one of Bette Davis's ladies-in-waiting in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939). She appeared in two additional films that year for Warner Bros., The Monroe Doctrine (short) and A Child Is Born, but was not signed to a long-term studio contract. She next appeared in the stage production Meet the People in Los Angeles in 1940, which then toured the United States in 1940–1941. In the show, she sang the opera aria "Caro nome" from Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto while tap dancing. During the show's New York run, Fabray was invited to perform the "Caro nome" number for a benefit at Madison Square Garden with Eleanor Roosevelt as the main speaker. Ed Sullivan was the master of ceremonies for the event and mispronounced her name, prompting her to subsequently change the spelling of her name from Fabares to the more easily pronounced Fabray.<ref name="archive">"{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Artur Rodziński, conductor of the New York Philharmonic, saw Fabray's performance in Meet the People and offered to sponsor operatic vocal training for her at the Juilliard School. She studied opera at Juilliard with Lucia Dunham in 1941 while performing in her first Broadway musical, Cole Porter's Let's Face It!, with Danny Kaye and Eve Arden.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> However, as she preferred performing in musical theatre over opera, she withdrew from the school after about five months.<ref name=":0" /> She became a successful musical-theatre actress in New York during the 1940s and early 1950s, starring in such productions as By Jupiter (1942), My Dear Public (1943), Jackpot (1944), Bloomer Girl (1946), High Button Shoes (1947), Arms and the Girl (1950) and Make a Wish (1951). In 1949, she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Susan Cooper in the Kurt Weill/Alan Jay Lerner musical Love Life. She received a Tony nomination for her role as Nell Henderson in Mr. President in 1963 after an 11-year absence from the New York stage.<ref name="archive" /> Fabray continued to tour in musicals for many years, appearing in such shows as Wonderful Town and No, No, Nanette.

Television and filmEdit

File:Nanette Fabray 1957.JPG
Fabray in 1957

In the mid-1940s, Fabray worked regularly for NBC on a variety of programs in the Los Angeles area. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, she made her first high-profile national television appearances performing on a number of variety programs such as The Ed Sullivan Show, Texaco Star Theatre and The Arthur Murray Party.

She also appeared on Your Show of Shows as a guest star opposite Sid Caesar. She appeared as a regular on Caesar's Hour from 1954 to 1956, winning three Emmys. Fabray left the show after a misunderstanding when her business manager made unreasonable demands for her third-season contract. Fabray and Caesar did not reconcile until years later.<ref>Template:CitationTemplate:Cbignore</ref> In December 1956, she appeared in an episode of Playhouse 90 titled "The Family Nobody Wanted" alongside Lew Ayres and Tim Hovey.

In 1961, Fabray starred in 26 episodes of Westinghouse Playhouse, a half-hour sitcom series that also was known as The Nanette Fabray Show or Yes, Yes Nanette. The character was loosely based on herself and her life as a newlywed with new stepchildren.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Fabray appeared as the mother of the main character in several television series such as One Day at a Time, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Coach, in which she played mother to real-life niece Shelley Fabares, who became a regular cast member in One Day at a Time.

Fabray made 13 guest appearances on The Carol Burnett Show. She performed on multiple episodes of The Dean Martin Show, The Hollywood Palace, Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall and The Andy Williams Show. She was a panelist on 230 episodes of the long-running game show The Hollywood Squares, a mystery guest on What's My Line? and later a panelist on Match Game in 1973. Other recurring game-show appearances included participation in Password, I've Got a Secret, He Said, She Said and Celebrity Bowling, Stump the Stars, Let's Make a Deal, All Star Secrets, and Family Feud.

She appeared in guest-starring roles on Burke's Law, Love, American Style, Maude, The Love Boat and Murder, She Wrote. During the PBS program Pioneers of Television: Sitcoms, Mary Tyler Moore credited Fabray with inspiring her trademark comedic crying technique. In 1986, Fabray was cast in the pilot episode of the unsold TBS sitcom project Here to Stay.

In 1953, Fabray played her best-known screen role as a Betty Comden-like playwright in the MGM musical comedy "The Band Wagon", performing in, among others, the musical numbers "That's Entertainment" and "Louisiana Hayride"; and in "Triplets" which was also included in That's Entertainment, Part II. Fabray's additional film credits include The Happy Ending (1969), Harper Valley PTA (1978) and Amy (1981).Template:Citation needed

Fabray's final work occurred in 2007 when she appeared in The Damsel Dialogues, a musical revue at the Whitefire Theatre in Sherman Oaks, California.

Personal lifeEdit

Fabray's first husband David Tebet was in television marketing and talent and later became a vice president at NBC.<ref name="EW 2018">Template:Cite magazine</ref> According to Fabray, their marriage ended in divorce partially because of her depression, anxiety and insecurity related to her worsening hearing loss. Her second husband was screenwriter Ranald MacDougall, whose writing credits include Mildred Pierce and Cleopatra and who served as president of the Writers Guild of America in the early 1970s, They were married from 1957 until MacDougall's death in 1973 and had one son together, Jamie MacDougall.<ref name="NYT 2018" />

Fabray lived in Pacific Palisades, California, and was the aunt of singer/actress Shelley Fabares. Her niece's 1984 wedding to M*A*S*H actor Mike Farrell was held at her home.<ref name="People - Fabares - 1991">Template:Cite news</ref> Fabray was associated with her longtime neighbor Ronald Reagan's campaign for the governorship of California in 1966.Template:Sfn

She was hospitalized for almost two weeks after being rendered unconscious by a falling pipe backstage during a live broadcast of Caesar's Hour in 1955.<ref name="NYT 2018" /> The audience in the studio heard her screams and Sid Caesar had at first been told that she had been killed in the freak accident. Fabray suffered a serious concussion along with associated temporary vision impairment and photosensitivity/photophobia. Later, she realized that she had avoided being directly impaled because she was bending down rather than standing straight at the time of the accident.<ref>Template:CitationTemplate:Cbignore</ref> In 1978, during the filming of Harper Valley PTA, Fabray suffered a second major concussion after falling, hitting her neck on the sidewalk and the back of her head on a rock. The accident was caused when a live elephant appearing in the film stampeded when it was spooked by a drunken bystander. Fabray developed associated memory loss and visual issues such as nystagmus but had to finish her scenes, including one involving a car chase. She was closely directed, coached, and fed lines as she could not remember her lines or cues as a result of the concussion. She was filmed from specific angles to hide the abnormal eye movements that the concussion had temporarily caused.<ref>Template:CitationTemplate:Cbignore</ref>

ActivismEdit

A longtime champion of hearing awareness and support of the deaf, she sat on boards and spoke at many related functions. A forward-thinking proponent of Total Communication and teaching the deaf language and communication in any way possible, including American Sign Language and not just the oralism method of the time, Fabray was one of, if not the first, to use sign language on [live] television,<ref>Template:CitationTemplate:Cbignore</ref> something which she continued to showcase on many programs on which she made appearances, including the Carol Burnett Show, Match Game '73, and I've Got a Secret. She even contributed the story line to an entire 1982 episodeTemplate:Citation needed of One Day at a Time, which focused on hearing loss awareness and acceptance, treatment options, and sign language. Fabray appeared in a 1986 infomercial for hearing device and deafness support products for House Ear Institute.<ref>Template:CitationTemplate:Cbignore</ref> In 2001, she wrote to advice columnist Dear Abby to decry the loud background music played on television programs.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A founding member of the National Captioning Institute,<ref name=":0" /> she also was one of the first big names<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> to bring awareness to the need for media closed-captioning.<ref>Template:CitationTemplate:Cbignore</ref>

Likewise, after the passing of her second husband, Randy MacDougall, Fabray also started to learn about the tribulations associated with spousal death and began to bring awareness to the need for changes in the law for widows and widowers.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She focused her later years on campaigning for widows' rights, particularly pertaining to women's inheritance laws, taxes, and asset protection.<ref>Template:CitationTemplate:Cbignore</ref>

DeathEdit

Fabray died on February 22, 2018, at the Canterbury nursing home in California at the age of 97 from natural causes.<ref name="McLellan 2018">Template:Cite news</ref>

HonorsEdit

A Tony and three-time Primetime Emmy award winner, Fabray has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.<ref name="AJC 2018">Template:Cite news</ref> In 1986, she received a Life Achievement award from the Screen Actors Guild.

She won a Golden Apple Award from the Hollywood Women's Press Club in 1960 along with Janet Leigh for being a Most Cooperative actress.Template:Citation needed

She was awarded the President's Distinguished Service Award and the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award for her long efforts on behalf of the deaf and hard-of-hearing.<ref name="AJC 2018" />

Partial filmographyEdit

FilmEdit

Year Title Role Notes
1927 Heebee Jeebees Child at Society Party (uncredited) Short
1939 Template:Sortname Mistress Margaret Radcliffe as Nanette Fabares
A Child Is Born Gladys Norton as Nanette Fabares
Template:Sortname Rosita De La Torre Short
as Nanette Fabares
1953 Template:Sortname Lily Marton
1960 Template:Sortname Society Woman Uncredited
1969 Template:Sortname Agnes
1970 Template:Sortname Sadie
1978 Harper Valley PTA Alice Finley
1981 Amy Malvina
1989 Template:Sortname Mildred McFall also known as Personal Exemptions
1994 Teresa's Tattoo Martha Mae also known as Natural Selection
2003 Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There Herself

TelevisionEdit

Year Title Role Notes
1949 Template:Sortname Season 1 Episode 25: "Londonderry Air"
1952 Template:Sortname Florinda Unconfirmed, uncredited
1953 Omnibus Raina Petkoff Season 1 Episode 26: "Arms and the Man"
1954–1956 Caesar's Hour Herself
1956 Saturday Spectacular: High Button Shoes Sara Longstreet (uncredited) TV Movie
Playhouse 90 Helen Doss Season 1 Episode 12: "The Family Nobody Wanted"
1957 Template:Sortname Rosemary Chase Season 2 Episode 13: "The Original Miss Chase"
Template:Sortname Josephine Evans Season 1 Episode 21: "A Man's Game"
1959 Laramie Essie Bright Season 1 Episode 2: "Glory Road"
1960 Startime Sally Season 1 Episode 33: "The Nanette Fabray Show, or Help Me, Aphrodite"
1961 Template:Sortname Nanette "Nan" McGovern Series regular
1964 Burke's Law Amanda Tribble / Rowena Coolidge 2 episodes
1965 Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre Hannah King Season 2 Episode 18: "In Any Language"
1966 Alice Through the Looking Glass The White Queen TV Movie
Fame Is the Name of the Game Pat TV Movie
1967 Template:Sortname Desiree Season 1 Episode 24: "The Petit Prix Affair"
NBC Experiment in Television Narrator (voice) Season 1 Episode 6: "Theater of the Deaf"
Template:Sortname Sgt. Muldoon Season 1 Episode 3: "Nanette Fabray, Al Hirt"
1967–1972 Template:Sortname Herself 13 episodes
1968–1972 Laugh-In Guest Performer 3 episodes
1970 George M! Helen Costigan 'Nellie' Cohan TV Movie
Howdy TV Movie
But I Don't Want to Get Married! Mrs. Vale TV Movie
1970–1973 Love, American Style Phyllis / Cindy / Casey / Helen 4 episodes
1972 Magic Carpet Virginia Wolfe TV Movie
Template:Sortname Marion Randolph TV Movie
Template:Sortname Dottie Richards 2 episodes
1974 Happy Anniversary and Goodbye Fay TV Movie
1977 Maude Katie Malloy Season 5 Episode 18: "Maude's Reunion"
1978–1981 Template:Sortname Mitzy Monroe / Maggie O'Brian / Shirley Simpson 3 episodes
1979 Template:Sortname Dora Dayton TV Movie
1979–1984 One Day at a Time Grandma Katherine Romano 46 episodes (Recurring role)
1981 Aloha Paradise Season 1 Episode 2: "The Star/The Trouble with Chester/Fran's Worst Friend"
1983–1986 Hotel Harriet Gold / Maggie Lewis 2 episodes
1986 Here to Stay Aunt Elizabeth TV Movie
1989 Template:Sortname Dottie Season 1 Episode 13: "Computer Mating"
1990–1994 Coach Mildred Armstrong 3 episodes
1991 Murder, She Wrote Emmaline Bristow Season 7 Episode 16: "From the Horse's Mouth"
1993 Template:Sortname Fern Season 1 Episode 13: "Rose and Fern"

Stage workEdit

ReferencesEdit

CitationsEdit

Template:Reflist

SourcesEdit

External linksEdit

Template:Sister project

  • {{#if: 40059 {{#property:P1220}}

| [https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/{{#if: 40059 

 | 40059
 | Template:First word
 }} {{#if: 
 | {{{name}}}
 | Template:PAGENAMEBASE
 }}] at the Internet Broadway DatabaseTemplate:EditAtWikidataTemplate:WikidataCheck{{#ifeq:0|0|{{#if:40059||}}}}

| {{IBDB name}} template missing ID and not present in Wikidata.{{#ifeq:0|0|}}

}} 

 | name/{{#if:{{#invoke:ustring|match|1=0264660|2=^nm}}
   | Template:Trim/
   | nm0264660/
   }}
 | {{#if: {{#property:P345}}
   | name/Template:First word/
   | find?q=%7B%7B%23if%3A+%0A++++++%7C+%7B%7B%7Bname%7D%7D%7D%0A++++++%7C+%5B%5B%3ATemplate%3APAGENAMEBASE%5D%5D%0A++++++%7D%7D&s=nm
   }}
 }}{{#if: 0264660  {{#property:P345}} | {{#switch: 
 | award | awards = awards Awards for | biography | bio = bio Biography for
 }}}} {{#if: 
 | {{{name}}}
 | Template:PAGENAMEBASE
 }}] at IMDb{{#if: 0264660{{#property:P345}}
 | Template:EditAtWikidata
 | Template:Main other

}}{{#switch:{{#invoke:string2|matchAny|^nm.........|^nm.......|nm|.........|source=0264660|plain=false}} 

 | 1 | 3 =  Template:Main otherTemplate:Preview warning
 | 4 = Template:Main otherTemplate:Preview warning

}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:IMDb name with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|showblankpositional=1| 1 | 2 | id | name | section }}

Template:Navboxes

Template:Authority control

Retrieved from "https://zalansite.site/mediawiki/index.php?title=Nanette_Fabray&oldid=724984"