Saturday, February 24, 2018

Nanette Fabray (1920-2018)

It would be easy to say Nanette Fabray led a full life. She began her show business career at a very young age, performing in vaudeville, then appearing with silent film icon Ben Turpin. By her early 20's, she discovered that she had a significant loss of hearing, which she overcame to become not only an Emmy & Tony Award winning actress and dancer (she studied under Bill "Bojangles" Robinson), but an advocate for the hearing impaired.

Television audiences know Nanette from roles on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Coach (in which she acted with her niece, singer-actress Shelley Fabares), & One Day at a Time, and as a frequent panelist on the original Hollywood Squares. Nanette also had a lengthy career in films, dating back to her days with Turpin.

In memory of Nanette Fabray, who passed away at 97, we have a clip of her appearing with Jack Benny on Shower of Stars.

Edit, 11/30/18: As you can tell, we've had to change videos again. The clip with Carol Burnett was deleted, hence switching to Jack Benny.



During the 70's, Nanette also did some PSA's about hearing loss. I'll see if I can find one to post another day.

Rest in peace, Nanette.

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