Singer, dancer and actress Mitzi Gaynor, who wowed audiences in movie musicals like “South Pacific” and became a fixture on TV variety shows and a Las Vegas headliner, died Thursday. She was 93.

Gaynor died of natural causes in Los Angeles, according to a statement from her representatives.

In a career spanning eight decades, Gaynor appeared in numerous musicals in the 1950s, including There’s No Business Like Show Business, Anything Goes, Les Girls and the film adaptation of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s hit South Pacific.

Gaynor beat out a host of Hollywood stars, including Doris Day, Elizabeth Taylor and Susan Hayward, who vied for the role of Nellie Forbush, a Navy nurse who sings about wanting to “wash that man right out of my hair.” . Her performance in the blockbuster film made her an international star and earned her a Golden Globe nomination.

For Gaynor it was the culmination of a string of Hollywood hits, but when musicals fell out of favor (her last film was the 1963 comedy “For Love or Money” with Kirk Douglas), she turned to concert performances. In 1961, she made her nightclub debut at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas and broke all box office records with her four-week stay.

She also turned to television. She was a guest on The Ed Sullivan Show, the same program where The Beatles appeared on US television for the second time. 70 million people tuned in.

She appeared in variety shows hosted by Frank Sinatra, Donald O’Connor, Jack Benny, Danny Thomas and Perry Como.

Gaynor also starred in a number of over-the-top, successful TV specials in which she sang and danced, making audiences aware that she was always in the game. “I won’t do an act unless I have fun doing it,” she said.

She won a New York Emmy Award for a documentary about her variety series “Mitzi Gaynor: Razzle Dazzle!” The Special Years”.

In 2019, then aged 88, Gaynor was still performing live but, due to a leg injury, sang seated on stage, accompanied by singer and pianist Michael Feinstein.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been able to jig properly, but I want to go jigging again,” she said.

She was born Francesca Mitzi Marlene de Czanyi von Gerber on September 4, 1931 in Chicago. Her parents were Henry von Gerber, a Hungarian music director and cellist, and Pauline Fisher Gerber, a former vaudeville dancer and aspiring songwriter.

After her parents’ divorce, Mitzi moved with her mother to Detroit, where she began classical ballet training. In 2019 Gaynor told Sunday Morning When she was 11, her dance teacher said, “Mitzi is going to go to Hollywood and become a star.”

She moved to Los Angeles, and while in high school, “Frances Gerber” (as she was known) appeared on stage with Ballet Russe prima ballerina Mia Slavenska in a production of Tchaikovsky’s “Song Without Words.”

She made her Broadway debut in 1946 at age 15 in “Gypsy Lady” and appeared in light opera productions in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Philadelphia.

Mitzi Gerber wasn’t even 20 years old and got a contract with 20th Century Fox. She recalled that a producer there thought her name sounded like a deli, “so he said, ‘How about Gaynor, (like) Janet Gaynor?’ My father loved it.

Her first major role was in “My Blue Heaven” (1950) with Betty Grable and Dan Dailey. She quickly followed with light-hearted songs like “Down Among the Sweltering Palms,” “We’re Not Married,” “Bloodhounds of Broadway” and “The I Don’t Care Girl.” She also starred in the western “Three Young Texans.”

In 1954, she received some of her best reviews for Irving Berlin’s high-budget film There’s No Business Like Show Business, in which she showcased her singing and comedic talents alongside Ethel Merman, Dan Dailey, Donald O’Connor, Johnny Ray and Marilyn Monroe proved. But before filming was completed, 20th Century Fox informed Gaynor that they were terminating her contract.

With her new husband, manager Jack Bean, Gaynor signed a new contract with Paramount, where she starred in the Bing Crosby musical Anything Goes. Other roles included the comedy “The Birds & The Bees” with David Niven and the Frank Sinatra drama “The Joker Is Wild.” George Cukor directed MGM’s Les Girls opposite Gene Kelly. She then returned to Fox for “South Pacific.”

Her most recent films included comedic roles in Happy Anniversary, Surprise Package and For Love or Money.

However, she enjoyed further success in Las Vegas, where she became the highest-paid entertainer in the city. In 1970, Gaynor became the first female artist to be named Celebrity Entertainer of the Year. She was also the first star client for an aspiring costume designer named Bob Mackie.

In 2017, Gaynor was inducted into the Great American Songbook Hall of Fame.

In 2019, Gaynor recalled her early romance with eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes on Sunday Morning. She estimates they were together for eight months. Did she love him? “I thought so. He asked me to marry him. Then I found out he had asked out 47 other women at the same time.”

Gaynor parted ways with Hughes and left with a very special parting gift. “He said, “OK, I want you to buy some dirt.” I said, “Some dirt?” He said, “Yeah, in Las Vegas.” $25 an acre, which I bought maybe eight years ago for two million dollars have sold.