Nanette Fabray

Nanette Fabray is a dancer, singer and actress of American origin. Ruby Bernadette Nanette Fabares, her birth name, she was born on 27th October 1920 in the city of San Diego in California. Her father, Raul Bernard Fabares, was a train conductor and her mother, Lily Agnes McGovern, was a housewife.Her family lived in the city of Los Angeles. Fabray's mother engaged her in theatres since her childhood. She learned tap dancing at a very young age. At the age of three, she appeared first time on stage as 'Miss New Year's Eve 1923' held at Million Dollar Theater. She frequently appeared in production of vaudeville as a singer and dancer in her childhood. She has worked with the stars as Ben Turpin. In the Great Depression period, her mother made their home into boarding place; it was then run by Fabray and other children of Fabray family. Her parents divorced when she was nine but decided to stay together for financial reasons. She attended Max Reinhardt School of the Theatre on scholarship in her early teenage years. In 1939, she graduated from Hollywood High School. In the fall of 1939, she joined Los Angeles Junior College but opted out few months after. She carried a hearing problem since the young age and was revealed in her 20s, and it happened to be the suggestion by a teacher to take a hearing test. In 1939, she made her debut in films by appearing in the movie ‘The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex’ as ladies in waiting. The same year, she made her appearance in two more films of Warner Brothers namely ‘The Monroe Doctrine’ and ‘A Child is Born’; though she was not able to earn a long-term contract. In 1940, she appeared in the stage production ‘Meet the People’ in Los Angeles; it toured the following year in the US. She sang the opera aria ‘Caro nome’ from Giuseppe Verdi’s ‘Rigoletto’ and also did tap dancing within the show.

The conductor of the New York Philharmonic, Artur Rodzinski, got impressed by Fabray’s performance and offered her sponsorship of operatic vocal training at the Juilliard School. During the second half of 1941, Fabray studied opera at Juilliard and performed in her first Broadway musical ‘Let’s Face It!’ along with Danny Kaye and Eve Arden Eve Arden was a very famous American actress. Her >> Read More... . Later, she opted out of the school spending five months there, as she preferred musical theatre over the opera. Fabray then starred in the productions as ‘By Jupiter’ (1942), ‘My Dear Public’ (1943), ‘Bloomer Girl’ (1946), ‘High Button Shoes’ (1947) and ‘Arms and the Girl’ (1950). For her musical performance in the ‘ Love Life Click to look into! >> Read More... ’, she received the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress. She also earned a Tony nomination for ‘Mr. President’ in the year of 1963; which was a comeback of Fabray on stage after eleven years. In the 1940s and 1950s, she appeared on the shows like ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’, ‘The Arthur Murray Party’ and ‘Texaco Star Theater’. She won three Emmys for the ‘Caesar’s Hour’ show from 1954 to 1956.

She played the role of main lead’s mother in the shows like ‘One Day at a Time’, ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’ and ‘Coach’. She also acted in the shows like ‘The Carol Burnett Show’, ‘Burke’s Law’, ‘American Style’, ‘The Love Boat’ and many more. In 1953, her role of Betty Comden in MGM’s ‘The Band Wagon’ became very well-known. Her recent appearance was in the year of 2007; she made her appearance in ‘The Damsel Dialogues’ by Miriam Nelson. She married Dave Tebet, vice-president of NBC. After getting separated with Tebet, she married Ranald MacDougall, screenwriter and once the president of the Writers Guild of America. They were blessed with one child. Fabray has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.