Nanette Fabray
Encyclopedia
Nanette Fabray is an American actress, comedienne, singer, dancer, and activist. She began her career performing in vaudeville
as a child and then became a musical theatre
actress during the 1940s and 1950s, winning a Tony Award
in 1949 for her performance in Love Life. She became a household name during the mid 1950s as comedy partner to Sid Caesar
on Caesar's Hour
for which she won three Emmy Awards. From 1979-1984 she starred as Grandma Katherine Romano on One Day at a Time
.
Fabray overcame a significant hearing impairment
to pursue her career and has been a long-time advocate for the rights of the deaf and hard of hearing. Her honors representing the handicapped include the President's Distinguished Service Award
and the Eleanor Roosevelt
Humanitarian Award. She is the aunt of actress/singer Shelley Fabares
.
to Raul Bernard Fabares, a train conductor
, and Lily Agnes McGovern, a housewife. The family resided in Los Angeles
and Fabray's mother was instrumental in getting her daughter involved in show business as a young child. At a very young age she began studying tap dancing with Bill “Bojangles” Robinson among other teachers. She made her professional stage debut as "Miss New Years Eve 1923" at the Million Dollar Theater
at the age of 3. The following year she made her first film appearance as an extra in the Our Gang
short Cradle Robbers
(unconfirmed). She spent much of her childhood appearing in vaudeville
productions as mainly a dancer but also a singer. She appeared across such stars as Ben Turpin
.
Fabray's parents divorced when she was nine years old but her parents continued to live together for financial reasons many years after. During the Great Depression
, her mother turned their home into a boarding house which Fabray and her siblings helped her to run. In her early teenage years she attended the Max Reinhardt
School of the Theatre on a scholarship. She also attended Hollywood High School
where she graduated in 1939. She entered Los Angeles Junior College
in the Fall of 1939 but withdrew after only a few months. She had always had difficulty as a student in school due to an undiagnosed hearing impairment which made learning significantly difficult for her. She eventually was diagnosed with a hearing problem in her 20s after an acting teacher encouraged her to get her hearing tested. Of the experience Fabray said, "It was a revelation to me. All these years I had thought I was stupid, but in reality I just had a hearing problem."
' ladies-in-waiting in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
(1939). She appeared in two other motion pictures that year for Warner Brothers, The Monroe Doctrine and A Child Is Born, but failed to gain a long-term studio contract. She next appeared in the stage show Meet the People in Los Angeles in 1940 which then toured the United States in 1940-1941. While in the show she sang the opera aria "Caro nome" from Giuseppe Verdi
's Rigoletto
and did a tap dance to the song as well. While the show was in New York City, 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 the famed host, reading a cue card, mispronounced her name as "Nanette Fa-bare-ass." After this embarrassing faux pas, the actress changed the spelling of her name from Fabares to Fabray.
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 during the latter half of 1941 while performing in her first Broadway
musical, Let's Face It!
with Danny Kaye
and Eve Arden
. She decided, however, that she preferred musical theatre over opera and withdrew from the school after attending for only five months. She became highly successful as a 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 Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Susan Cooper in Kurt Weill
and Alan Jay Lerner
's Love Life. She received a second Tony nomination for the role of Nell Henderson in Mr. President
in 1963 after an eleven year absence from the New York Stage.
and NBC
on a variety of programs for the Los Angeles area. In the late 1940s and early 1950s Fabray made her first high profile national television appearances performing on a number of variety programs like The Ed Sullivan Show
, Texaco Star Theater
, and The Arthur Murray Party
. She also appeared on Your Show of Shows
as a guest star opposite Sid Caesar
. She later became a household name serving as Caesar's comedy partner on Caesar's Hour
from 1954–1956, for which she won three Emmys. Fabray left the show after a misunderstanding when her business manager, unbeknownst to her, made unreasonable demands for her third season contract, and Fabray and Caesar did not reconcile until a few years later when both became aware of the facts.
Fabray appeared on several series as the mother of a main character: on One Day at a Time
she was Ann Romano's mom; on The Mary Tyler Moore Show
she was mother to Mary Richards, and on Coach
, she played mother to real-life niece Shelley Fabares
. She also made appearances on The Carol Burnett Show
, Burke's Law
, Love, American Style
, Maude
, The Love Boat
, What's My Line?
, and Murder, She Wrote
. Her brief, eponymous 1961 comedy series was cancelled after 13 episodes. On the PBS
program, Pioneers of Television: Sitcoms, Mary Tyler Moore
credited her well-known "crying" takes to mimicking Fabray's style of comic crying.
In 1953, Fabray played her most famous screen role as a Betty Comden
-like playwright
in MGM's The Band Wagon
with Fred Astaire
and Jack Buchanan
. Their performance included a classic musical number, "Triplets", that was eventually included in That's Entertainment Part II. Additional film credits include The Subterraneans
(1960), The Happy Ending
(1969), Amy (1981), and Teresa's Tattoo
(1994) among others.
Fabray's most recent work was in 2007, when she appeared in The Damsel Dialogues, an original revue by composer Dick de Benedictus, with direction/choreography by Miriam Nelson. The show focused on women's' issues with life, love, loss and the work place. The play was performed at the Whitefire Theatre in Sherman Oaks, California.
. Her second husband, 1957-1973 (his death), with whom she had one child, was screenwriter
and sometime-director
Ranald MacDougall
, who numbered Mildred Pierce
and Cleopatra
among his credits and was President of the Writers Guild of America
in the early 1970s.
Nanette Fabray is a resident of Pacific Palisades, California. In 2001 she wrote to Dear Abby
to decry the loud background music
used on television programs today.
Nanette is the aunt of singer/actress, Shelley Fabares
.
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
as a child and then became a musical theatre
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
actress during the 1940s and 1950s, winning a Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
in 1949 for her performance in Love Life. She became a household name during the mid 1950s as comedy partner to Sid Caesar
Sid Caesar
Isaac Sidney "Sid" Caesar is an Emmy award winning American comic actor and writer known as the leading man on the 1950s television series Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour, and to younger generations as Coach Calhoun in Grease and Grease 2.- Early life :Caesar was born in Yonkers, New York,...
on Caesar's Hour
Caesar's Hour
Caesar's Hour is a live, hour-long American sketch comedy television program that aired on NBC from 1954 until 1957. The program starred, among others, Sid Caesar, Nanette Fabray, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, Janet Blair and Milt Kamen, and featured a number of cameo roles by famous entertainers...
for which she won three Emmy Awards. From 1979-1984 she starred as Grandma Katherine Romano on One Day at a Time
One Day at a Time
One Day at a Time is an American situation comedy on the CBS network that aired from December 16, 1975 until May 28, 1984. It portrays Ann Romano, a divorced mother, played by Bonnie Franklin, her two teenage daughters Julie and Barbara Cooper and Schneider, their building superintendent .The show...
.
Fabray overcame a significant hearing impairment
Hearing impairment
-Definition:Deafness is the inability for the ear to interpret certain or all frequencies of sound.-Environmental Situations:Deafness can be caused by environmental situations such as noise, trauma, or other ear defections...
to pursue her career and has been a long-time advocate for the rights of the deaf and hard of hearing. Her honors representing the handicapped include the President's Distinguished Service Award
Distinguished Civilian Service Awards Board
The Distinguished Civilian Service Awards Board is a board created for recommending civilians for awards from the U.S. Federal government for distinguished service. It was Originally established by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on June 27, 1957 by Executive Order 10717 to recommend to the...
and the Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international...
Humanitarian Award. She is the aunt of actress/singer Shelley Fabares
Shelley Fabares
Michele Ann Marie "Shelley" Fabares is an American actress and singer. Fabares is known for her roles as Donna Reed's oldest child, Mary Stone, on The Donna Reed Show , and as Craig T. Nelson's love interest and eventual wife, Christine Armstrong Fox, on the sitcom Coach. She also was Elvis...
.
Early life, education, and work as a child actor
Fabray was born as Ruby Bernadette Nanette Fabares in San Diego, CaliforniaSan Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
to Raul Bernard Fabares, a train conductor
Conductor (transportation)
A conductor is a member of a railway train's crew that is responsible for operational and safety duties that do not involve the actual operation of the train. The title of conductor is most associated with railway operations in North America, but the role of conductor is common to railways...
, and Lily Agnes McGovern, a housewife. The family resided in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and Fabray's mother was instrumental in getting her daughter involved in show business as a young child. At a very young age she began studying tap dancing with Bill “Bojangles” Robinson among other teachers. She made her professional stage debut as "Miss New Years Eve 1923" at the Million Dollar Theater
Million Dollar Theater
The Million Dollar Theater at 307 S. Broadway in downtown Los Angeles is one of the first movie palaces built in the United States. It opened in February 1918...
at the age of 3. The following year she made her first film appearance as an extra in the Our Gang
Our Gang
Our Gang, also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals, was a series of American comedy short films about a group of poor neighborhood children and the adventures they had together. Created by comedy producer Hal Roach, the series is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively...
short Cradle Robbers
Cradle Robbers
Cradle Robbers is a 1924 short silent comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 26th Our Gang short subject released.-Synopsis:The boys cannot go fishing because they have to take care of their baby brothers and sisters...
(unconfirmed). She spent much of her childhood appearing in vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
productions as mainly a dancer but also a singer. She appeared across such stars as Ben Turpin
Ben Turpin
Ben Turpin was a cross-eyed American comedian and actor, best remembered for his work in silent films.-Personal life:...
.
Fabray's parents divorced when she was nine years old but her parents continued to live together for financial reasons many years after. During the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, her mother turned their home into a boarding house which Fabray and her siblings helped her to run. In her early teenage years she attended the Max Reinhardt
Max Reinhardt
----Max Reinhardt was an Austrian theater and film director and actor.-Biography:...
School of the Theatre on a scholarship. She also attended Hollywood High School
Hollywood High School
Hollywood High School is a Los Angeles Unified School District high school located at the intersection of North Highland Avenue and West Sunset Boulevard in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California.-History:...
where she graduated in 1939. She entered Los Angeles Junior College
Los Angeles City College
Los Angeles City College, known as LACC, is a public community college in the East Hollywood section of Los Angeles, California. A part of the Los Angeles Community College District, it is located on Vermont Avenue south of Santa Monica Boulevard...
in the Fall of 1939 but withdrew after only a few months. She had always had difficulty as a student in school due to an undiagnosed hearing impairment which made learning significantly difficult for her. She eventually was diagnosed with a hearing problem in her 20s after an acting teacher encouraged her to get her hearing tested. Of the experience Fabray said, "It was a revelation to me. All these years I had thought I was stupid, but in reality I just had a hearing problem."
Early adult career as a musical theatre actress
At the age of 19, Fabray made her feature film debut as one of Bette DavisBette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
' ladies-in-waiting in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex is a 1939 historical romantic drama film. It is based on the relationship between Queen Elizabeth I, portrayed by Bette Davis, and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, played by Errol Flynn...
(1939). She appeared in two other motion pictures that year for Warner Brothers, The Monroe Doctrine and A Child Is Born, but failed to gain a long-term studio contract. She next appeared in the stage show Meet the People in Los Angeles in 1940 which then toured the United States in 1940-1941. While in the show she sang the opera aria "Caro nome" from Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
and did a tap dance to the song as well. While the show was in New York City, Fabray was invited to perform the "Caro nome" number for a benefit at Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
with Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international...
as the main speaker. Ed Sullivan
Ed Sullivan
Edward Vincent "Ed" Sullivan was an American entertainment writer and television host, best known as the presenter of the TV variety show The Ed Sullivan Show. The show was broadcast from 1948 to 1971 , which made it one of the longest-running variety shows in U.S...
was the Master of Ceremonies
Master of Ceremonies
A Master of Ceremonies , or compere, is the host of a staged event or similar performance.An MC usually presents performers, speaks to the audience, and generally keeps the event moving....
for the event and the famed host, reading a cue card, mispronounced her name as "Nanette Fa-bare-ass." After this embarrassing faux pas, the actress changed the spelling of her name from Fabares to Fabray.
Artur Rodziński
Artur Rodzinski
Artur Rodziński was a Polish conductor of opera and symphonic music. He is especially noted for his tenures as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic in the 1930s and 1940s.-Biography:...
, conductor of the New York Philharmonic
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
, saw Fabray's performance in Meet the People and offered to sponsor operatic vocal training for her at the Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
. She studied opera at Juilliard during the latter half of 1941 while performing in her first Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
musical, Let's Face It!
Let's Face It!
Let's Face It! is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The book by Herbert and Dorothy Fields is based on the 1925 play The Cradle Snatchers by Russell Medcraft and Norma Mitchell....
with Danny Kaye
Danny Kaye
Danny Kaye was a celebrated American actor, singer, dancer, and comedian...
and Eve Arden
Eve Arden
Eve Arden was an American actress. Her almost 60-year career crossed most media frontiers with supporting and leading roles, but she may be best-remembered for playing the sardonic but engaging title character, a high school teacher, on Our Miss Brooks, and as the Rydell High School principal in...
. She decided, however, that she preferred musical theatre over opera and withdrew from the school after attending for only five months. She became highly successful as a musical theatre actress in New York during the 1940s and early 1950s, starring in such productions as By Jupiter
By Jupiter
By Jupiter is a musical with a book by Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers, music by Rodgers, and lyrics by Hart. The musical is based on the play The Warrior's Husband by Julian F. Thompson, set in the land of the Amazons...
(1942), My Dear Public (1943), Jackpot
Jackpot (musical)
Jackpot is an American musical with music by Vernon Duke, lyrics by Howard Dietz, and a musical book by Guy Bolton, Sidney Sheldon, and Ben Roberts. The musical premiered on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre on January 13, 1944. It closed on March 11, 1944 after a total of 69 performances...
(1944), Bloomer Girl
Bloomer Girl
Bloomer Girl was a Broadway musical that premiered on October 4, 1944. Sig Herzig and Fred Saidy wrote the book, Harold Arlen the music, and E.Y. Harburg the lyrics. Agnes de Mille was the choreographer...
(1946), High Button Shoes
High Button Shoes
High Button Shoes is a musical with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Sammy Cahn and book by George Abbott and Stephen Longstreet. It was based on the semi-autobiographical 1946 novel The Sisters Liked Them Handsome by Longstreet...
(1947), Arms and the Girl (1950), and Make a Wish
Make a Wish (musical)
Make a Wish is a musical with a book by Preston Sturges and Abe Burrows, who was not credited, and music and lyrics by Hugh Martin.Based on Sturges' screenplay for the 1935 film The Good Fairy, which in turn is based on the play of the same name by Ferenc Molnár as translated by Jane Hinton, the...
(1951). In 1949 she won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Susan Cooper in Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
and Alan Jay Lerner
Alan Jay Lerner
Alan Jay Lerner was an American lyricist and librettist. In collaboration with Frederick Loewe, he created some of the world's most popular and enduring works of musical theatre for both the stage and on film...
's Love Life. She received a second Tony nomination for the role of Nell Henderson in Mr. President
Mr. President (musical)
Mr. President is a musical with a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse and lyrics and music by Irving Berlin.It focuses on U.S. President Stephen Decatur Henderson, who loses his bid for re-election following a disastrous trip to the Soviet Union...
in 1963 after an eleven year absence from the New York Stage.
Television and film
In the mid 1940s Fabray worked regularly for David SarnoffDavid Sarnoff
David Sarnoff was an American businessman and pioneer of American commercial radio and television. He founded the National Broadcasting Company and throughout most of his career he led the Radio Corporation of America in various capacities from shortly after its founding in 1919 until his...
and NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
on a variety of programs for the Los Angeles area. In the late 1940s and early 1950s Fabray made her first high profile national television appearances performing on a number of variety programs like The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan....
, Texaco Star Theater
Texaco Star Theater
Texaco Star Theater is an American comedy-variety show, broadcast on radio from 1938 to 1949 and telecast from 1948 to 1956. It was one of the first successful examples of American television broadcasting, remembered as the show that gave Milton Berle the nickname "Mr...
, and The Arthur Murray Party
The Arthur Murray Party
The Arthur Murray Party is an American television variety show which ran from July 1950 until September 1960. The show was hosted by famous dancers Arthur and Kathryn Murray, and was basically one long advertisement for their chain of dance studios...
. She also appeared on Your Show of Shows
Your Show of Shows
Your Show of Shows is a live 90-minute variety show that appeared weekly in the United States on NBC , from February 25, 1950, until June 5, 1954, featuring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca....
as a guest star opposite Sid Caesar
Sid Caesar
Isaac Sidney "Sid" Caesar is an Emmy award winning American comic actor and writer known as the leading man on the 1950s television series Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour, and to younger generations as Coach Calhoun in Grease and Grease 2.- Early life :Caesar was born in Yonkers, New York,...
. She later became a household name serving as Caesar's comedy partner on Caesar's Hour
Caesar's Hour
Caesar's Hour is a live, hour-long American sketch comedy television program that aired on NBC from 1954 until 1957. The program starred, among others, Sid Caesar, Nanette Fabray, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, Janet Blair and Milt Kamen, and featured a number of cameo roles by famous entertainers...
from 1954–1956, for which she won three Emmys. Fabray left the show after a misunderstanding when her business manager, unbeknownst to her, made unreasonable demands for her third season contract, and Fabray and Caesar did not reconcile until a few years later when both became aware of the facts.
Fabray appeared on several series as the mother of a main character: on One Day at a Time
One Day at a Time
One Day at a Time is an American situation comedy on the CBS network that aired from December 16, 1975 until May 28, 1984. It portrays Ann Romano, a divorced mother, played by Bonnie Franklin, her two teenage daughters Julie and Barbara Cooper and Schneider, their building superintendent .The show...
she was Ann Romano's mom; on The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Mary Tyler Moore Show is an American television sitcom created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns that aired on CBS from 1970 to 1977...
she was mother to Mary Richards, and on Coach
Coach (TV series)
Coach is an American television sitcom that aired for nine seasons on ABC from 1989 to 1997. The series starred Craig T. Nelson as Hayden Fox, head coach of the fictional Division I-A college football team, the Minnesota State University Screaming Eagles...
, she played mother to real-life niece Shelley Fabares
Shelley Fabares
Michele Ann Marie "Shelley" Fabares is an American actress and singer. Fabares is known for her roles as Donna Reed's oldest child, Mary Stone, on The Donna Reed Show , and as Craig T. Nelson's love interest and eventual wife, Christine Armstrong Fox, on the sitcom Coach. She also was Elvis...
. She also made appearances on The Carol Burnett Show
The Carol Burnett Show
The Carol Burnett Show is a variety / sketch comedy television show starring Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner, and Tim Conway. It originally ran on CBS from September 11, 1967, to March 29, 1978, for 278 episodes and originated from CBS Television City's Studio 33...
, Burke's Law
Burke's Law
Burke's Law is a detective series that ran on ABC from 1963 to 1965 and was revived on CBS in the 1990s. The show starred Gene Barry as Amos Burke, millionaire captain of Los Angeles police homicide division, who was chauffeured around to solve crimes in his Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud...
, Love, American Style
Love, American Style
Love, American Style is an hour-long TV anthology produced by Paramount Television and originally aired between September 1969 and January 1974...
, Maude
Maude (TV series)
Maude was an American television sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS network from September 12, 1972 until April 22, 1978.Maude starred Beatrice Arthur as Maude Findlay, an outspoken, middle-aged, politically liberal woman living in suburban Tuckahoe, Westchester County, New York with...
, The Love Boat
The Love Boat
The Love Boat is an American television series set on a cruise ship, which aired on the ABC Television Network from September 24,1977, until May 24,1986.The show starred Gavin MacLeod as the ship's captain...
, What's My Line?
What's My Line?
What's My Line? is a panel game show which originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, with several international versions and subsequent U.S. revivals. The game tasked celebrity panelists with questioning contestants in order to determine their occupations....
, and Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote is an American television mystery series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network, with 264 episodes transmitted. It was followed by four TV films and a spin-off series,...
. Her brief, eponymous 1961 comedy series was cancelled after 13 episodes. On the PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
program, Pioneers of Television: Sitcoms, Mary Tyler Moore
Mary Tyler Moore
Mary Tyler Moore is an American actress, primarily known for her roles in television sitcoms. Moore is best known for The Mary Tyler Moore Show , in which she starred as Mary Richards, a 30-something single woman who worked as a local news producer in Minneapolis, and for her earlier role as...
credited her well-known "crying" takes to mimicking Fabray's style of comic crying.
In 1953, Fabray played her most famous screen role as a Betty Comden
Betty Comden
Betty Comden was one-half of the musical-comedy duo Comden and Green, who provided lyrics, libretti, and screenplays to some of the most beloved and successful Hollywood musicals and Broadway shows of the mid-20th century...
-like playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
in MGM's The Band Wagon
The Band Wagon
The Band Wagon is a 1953 musical comedy film that many critics rank, along with Singin' in the Rain, as the finest of the MGM musicals, although it was only a modest box-office success. It tells the story of an aging musical star who hopes a Broadway play will restart his career...
with Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
and Jack Buchanan
Jack Buchanan
Walter John "Jack" Buchanan was a British theatre and film actor, singer, producer and director. He was known for three decades as the embodiment of the debonair man-about-town in the tradition of George Grossmith Jr., and was described by The Times as "the last of the knuts." He is best known in...
. Their performance included a classic musical number, "Triplets", that was eventually included in That's Entertainment Part II. Additional film credits include The Subterraneans
The Subterraneans
The Subterraneans is a 1958 novella by Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac. It is a semi-fictional account of his short romance with an African American woman named Alene Lee in San Francisco in 1953. In the novel she is renamed "Mardou Fox," and described as a carefree spirit who frequents the...
(1960), The Happy Ending
The Happy Ending
The Happy Ending is a 1969 film written and directed by Richard Brooks, which tells the story of a repressed housewife who longs for liberation from her marriage...
(1969), Amy (1981), and Teresa's Tattoo
Teresa's Tattoo
Teresa's Tattoo is a 1994 action–comedy–crime film directed by Julie Cypher and John E. Vohlers. The film is also known as Natural Selection. The film stars C. Thomas Howell, Lou Diamond Phillips, Melissa Etheridge, who also performed songs for the film, K.D. Lang, and Kiefer Sutherland...
(1994) among others.
Fabray's most recent work was in 2007, when she appeared in The Damsel Dialogues, an original revue by composer Dick de Benedictus, with direction/choreography by Miriam Nelson. The show focused on women's' issues with life, love, loss and the work place. The play was performed at the Whitefire Theatre in Sherman Oaks, California.
Personal life
Fabray's first husband, Dave Tebet was a Vice-President of NBCNBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
. Her second husband, 1957-1973 (his death), with whom she had one child, was screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
and sometime-director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
Ranald MacDougall
Ranald MacDougall
Ranald MacDougall was an American screenwriter who scripted such films as Mildred Pierce , The Unsuspected , June Bride , and The Naked Jungle ....
, who numbered Mildred Pierce
Mildred Pierce (film)
Mildred Pierce is a 1945 American drama film starring Joan Crawford, Ann Blyth, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, and Eve Arden in a film noir about a long-suffering mother and her ungrateful daughter. The screenplay by Ranald MacDougall, William Faulkner, and Catherine Turney was based upon the 1941...
and Cleopatra
Cleopatra (1963 film)
Cleopatra is a 1963 British-American-Swiss epic drama film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. The screenplay was adapted by Sidney Buchman, Ben Hecht, Ranald MacDougall, and Mankiewicz from a book by Carlo Maria Franzero. The film starred Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Roddy...
among his credits and was President of the Writers Guild of America
Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America is a generic term referring to the joint efforts of two different US labor unions:* The Writers Guild of America, East , representing TV and film writers East of the Mississippi....
in the early 1970s.
Nanette Fabray is a resident of Pacific Palisades, California. In 2001 she wrote to Dear Abby
Dear Abby
Dear Abby is the name of the advice column founded in 1956 by Pauline Phillips under the pen name Abigail Van Buren and carried on today by her daughter, Jeanne Phillips, who now owns the legal rights to the pen name....
to decry the loud background music
Background music
Although background music was by the end of the 20th century generally identified with Muzak or elevator music, there are several stages in the development of this concept.-Antecedents:...
used on television programs today.
Nanette is the aunt of singer/actress, Shelley Fabares
Shelley Fabares
Michele Ann Marie "Shelley" Fabares is an American actress and singer. Fabares is known for her roles as Donna Reed's oldest child, Mary Stone, on The Donna Reed Show , and as Craig T. Nelson's love interest and eventual wife, Christine Armstrong Fox, on the sitcom Coach. She also was Elvis...
.
Film
- Cradle RobbersCradle RobbersCradle Robbers is a 1924 short silent comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 26th Our Gang short subject released.-Synopsis:The boys cannot go fishing because they have to take care of their baby brothers and sisters...
(1924) - The Private Lives of Elizabeth and EssexThe Private Lives of Elizabeth and EssexThe Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex is a 1939 historical romantic drama film. It is based on the relationship between Queen Elizabeth I, portrayed by Bette Davis, and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, played by Errol Flynn...
(1939) - A Child Is Born (1939)
- The Monroe Doctrine (1939)
- The Miracle of Our Lady of FatimaThe Miracle of Our Lady of FatimaThe Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima is a feature film made in 1952. It was promoted as a fact-based treatment of the events surrounding the apparitions of Our Lady of Fátima in 1917....
(1952) - The Band WagonThe Band WagonThe Band Wagon is a 1953 musical comedy film that many critics rank, along with Singin' in the Rain, as the finest of the MGM musicals, although it was only a modest box-office success. It tells the story of an aging musical star who hopes a Broadway play will restart his career...
(1953) - The Subterraneans (1960)
- The Happy EndingThe Happy EndingThe Happy Ending is a 1969 film written and directed by Richard Brooks, which tells the story of a repressed housewife who longs for liberation from her marriage...
(1969) - Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico CountyCockeyed Cowboys of Calico CountyThe Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County is a Western comedy film released in April 1970 for Universal Pictures and directed by Anton Leader. The film stars Dan Blocker, Nanette Fabray, Jim Backus, Mickey Rooney, and Jack Elam....
(1970) - Harper Valley PTAHarper Valley PTA (film)Harper Valley PTA is a 1978 comedy movie starring Barbara Eden. The movie was inspired by the country music song of the same title written by Tom T. Hall...
(1978) - Amy (1981)
- Personal Exemptions (1987)
- Teresa's Tattoo (1994)
- Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were ThereBroadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were ThereBroadway: The Golden Age is a 2004 documentary by Rick McKay, telling the story of the "golden age" of Broadway by the oral history of the legendary actors of the 40s and 50s, incorporating rare lost footage of actual performances and never-before-seen personal home movies and photos.-The Cast:The...
(2003)
Television
- Caesar's HourCaesar's HourCaesar's Hour is a live, hour-long American sketch comedy television program that aired on NBC from 1954 until 1957. The program starred, among others, Sid Caesar, Nanette Fabray, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, Janet Blair and Milt Kamen, and featured a number of cameo roles by famous entertainers...
(1954–1957) - So Help Me, Aphrodite (1960)
- Westinghouse PlayhouseWestinghouse playhouseWestinghouse Playhouse is an American sitcom that aired from January to July 1961 on NBC. Starring Nanette Fabray, the series was also known as The Nanette Fabray Show, Westinghouse Playhouse Starring Nanette Fabray and Wendell Corey, and ran under the title Yes, Yes Nanette in...
(1961) - Alice Through the Looking Glass (1966)
- Fame Is the Name of the GameFame Is the Name of the GameFame Is the Name of the Game is an American TV-movie, directed by Stuart Rosenberg, that aired on NBC and served as the pilot episode of the subsequent series The Name of the Game. The film stars Tony Franciosa as an investigative journalist and presents the screen debut of 20-year-old Susan...
(1966) - George M!George M!George M! is a Broadway musical based on the life of George M. Cohan, the biggest Broadway star of his day who was known as "The Man Who Owned Broadway." The book for the musical was written by Michael Stewart, John Pascal, and Francine Pascal. Music and lyrics were, of course, by George M...
(1970) - But I Don't Want to Get Married! (1970)
- Magic Carpet (1972)
- The Couple Takes a Wife (1972)
- Happy Anniversary and Goodbye (1974)
- The Man in the Santa Claus Suit (1979)
- One Day at a TimeOne Day at a TimeOne Day at a Time is an American situation comedy on the CBS network that aired from December 16, 1975 until May 28, 1984. It portrays Ann Romano, a divorced mother, played by Bonnie Franklin, her two teenage daughters Julie and Barbara Cooper and Schneider, their building superintendent .The show...
(cast member from 1979–1984)