Born Margaret Nixon McEathron in Altadena, California, United States, to Charles Nixon and Margaret Elsa (née Wittke) McEathron, Nixon was a child actress and also began singing at an early age in choruses, including performing solos with the Roger Wagner Chorale. She went on to study singing and opera with Thomas Noble MacBurney, Carl Ebert, Jan Popper, Boris Goldovsky and Sarah Caldwell. Nixon's career in film started in 1948 when she sang the voices of the angels heard by Ingrid Bergman in Joan of Arc (1948). The same year, she did her first dubbing work when she provided Margaret O'Brien's singing voice in 1948's Big City and then 1949's The Secret Garden. She also dubbed Marilyn Monroe's high notes in "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). She appeared on Broadway in 1954 in The Girl in Pink Tights. In 1956, she worked closely with Deborah Kerr to supply the star's singing voice for the film version of Rodgers & Hammerstein's The King and I, and the next year she again worked with Kerr to dub her voice in An Affair to Remember. That year, she also sang for Sophia Loren in Boy on a Dolphin. In 1960, she had an on-screen chorus role in Can-Can. In 1961's West Side Story, the studio kept her work on the film (as the singing voice of Natalie Wood's Maria) a secret from the actress, and Nixon also dubbed Rita Moreno's singing in the film's "Tonight" quintet. She asked the film's producers for, but did not receive, any direct royalties from her work on the film, but Leonard Bernstein contractually gave her 1/4 of one percent of his personal royalties from it. In 1962, she also sang Wood's high notes in Gypsy. For My Fair Lady in 1964, she again worked with the female lead of the film, Audrey Hepburn, to perform the songs of Hepburn's character Eliza. Because of her uncredited dubbing work in these films, Time magazine called her "The Ghostess with the Mostest".
Nixon made a special guest appearance on Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts broadcast that aired April 9, 1961, entitled "Folk Music in the Concert Hall". She sang three "Songs of the Auvergne" by Canteloube. Before My Fair Lady was released in theatres in 1964, Nixon played Eliza in a production at New York City Center. Nixon's first onscreen appearance was as Sister Sophia in the 1965 film The Sound of Music. In the DVD commentary to the film, director Robert Wise comments that audiences were finally able to see the woman whose voice they knew so well. In 1967, she was the singing voice of Princess Serena in a live action and animated version of Jack and the Beanstalk on NBC. Also in the 1960s, Nixon made concert appearances.
Nixon taught at the California Institute of Arts from 1969 to 1971 and joined the faculty of the Music Academy of the West, Santa Barbara, in 1980, where she taught for many years. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, she hosted a children's television show in Seattle on KOMO-TV channel 4 called Boomerang, winning four Emmy Awards as best actress, and made numerous other television appearances on variety shows and as a guest star in prime time series.
Nixon's opera repertory included Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, both Blonde and Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Violetta in La traviata, the title role in La Périchole and Philine in Mignon. Her opera credits include performances at Los Angeles Opera, Seattle Opera, San Francisco Opera and the Tanglewood Festival among others. In addition to giving recitals, she appeared as an oratorio and concert soloist with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra among others. Nixon also toured with Liberace and Victor Borge and in her own cabaret shows. On stage, in 1984, she originated the role of Edna Off-Broadway in Taking My Turn, composed by Gary William Friedman, receiving a nomination for a Drama Desk Award. She also originated the role of Sadie McKibben in Opal (1992), and she had a 1997 film role as Aunt Alice in I Think I Do. Under her own name, beginning in the 1980s, Nixon recorded songs by Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Arnold Schönberg, Charles Ives, Aaron Copland and Anton Webern. She was nominated for two Grammy Awards for Best Classical Performance, Vocal Soloist, one for her Schönberg album and one for her Copland album.
In the 1998 Disney film Mulan, Nixon was the singing voice of "Grandmother Fa". She then returned to the stage, touring the US as Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret in 1997–1998. In 1999, she originated the role of Mrs. Wilson in the premiere of Ballymore, an opera by Richard Wargo at Skylight Opera Theatre in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which was taped for PBS. In regional theatre and Off-Broadway, she played Nurse in Romeo & Juliet and appeared in productions of The King and I and The Sound of Music. She also continued to teach voice and judge vocal competitions.
In 2000, after nearly a half century away, she returned to Broadway as Aunt Kate in James Joyce's The Dead. In 2001, Nixon replaced Joan Roberts as Heidi Schiller in the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies. She played Eunice Miller in 70, Girls, 70 in a 2002 production in Los Angeles. In 2003, she was again on Broadway as a replacement in role of Guido's mother in the revival of Nine. Her autobiography, I Could Have Sung All Night, was published in 2006. She performed in the 2008 North American Tour of Cameron Mackintosh's UK revival of My Fair Lady in the role of Mrs. Higgins.
On October 27, 2008, Nixon was presented with the Singer Symposium's Distinguished Artist Award in New York City. She is also an Honorary Member of Sigma Alpha Iota International Women's Music Fraternity.
In 1950, Nixon married the first of her three husbands, Ernest Gold, who composed the theme song to the movie Exodus. They had three children, including singer/songwriter Andrew Gold. They divorced in 1969. She was married to Dr. Lajos "Fritz" Fenster from 1971 to 1975, and to woodwind player Albert Block from 1983 to his death in 2015.
Nixon died in New York from the effects of breast cancer, aged 86.
Somewhere
Marni Nixon Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Somewhere a place for us
Peace and quiet and open air
Wait for us somewhere
There's a time for us
Someday a time for us
Time together with time to spare
Someday
Somewhere
We'll find a new way of living
We'll find a way of forgiving
Somewhere
There's a place for us
A time and a place for us
Hold my hand and we're half way there
Hold my hand and I'll take you there
Somehow
Someday
Somewhere
The song "Somewhere" by Marni Nixon communicates the idea of hope in the face of adversity. The lyrics suggest that despite the struggles and hardships of the present, there is a place and time in the future where peace, quiet, and open air await. The song speaks to the deep longing for a better world, and the belief that such a world is possible.
The first verse describes a place of peace and quiet, where the air is fresh and open. The second verse speaks of a time when there will be time to spare, when people will have the opportunity to truly look and care for one another. The choruses express the desire to find a new way of living, a way of forgiveness and understanding that will lead to this better world.
The final verse connects these ideas to a sense of community and togetherness, suggesting that holding hands is a way to make progress towards this utopian vision. The song ends with the repetition of "somehow, someday, somewhere," implying that while this world may seem distant and impossible, it is still worth striving for.
Overall, "Somewhere" is a powerful message of hope that speaks to the human desire for a better future. By painting a vivid picture of a peaceful and ideal world, the song inspires listeners to keep pushing towards this vision, even through difficult times.
Line by Line Meaning
There's a place for us
There is a specific place that exists for us
Somewhere a place for us
That place is somewhere that we have yet to find
Peace and quiet and open air
That place will be characterized by peace, quiet, and open air
Wait for us somewhere
We will find that place eventually, it is waiting for us
There's a time for us
There is also a specific time that exists for us
Someday a time for us
That time will someday arrive
Time together with time to spare
During that time, we will enjoy each other's company and also have extra time
Time to look, time to care
We will use that time to look at our surroundings and care for one another
Someday
Once again, someday that time will arrive
Somewhere
Likewise, somewhere that place will be found
We'll find a new way of living
When we find that place, we will live in a new, better way
We'll find a way of forgiving
Part of that new way of living will likely involve forgiveness
Somewhere
Once again, that place and time will be found
There's a place for us
Reiterating that there is a specific place meant for us
A time and a place for us
This time, clarifying that there is both a specific time and place for us
Hold my hand and we're half way there
When we are together, it feels like we are already halfway to finding that place
Hold my hand and I'll take you there
We will journey together and I will help lead us to that place
Somehow
Even though we may not know exactly how or when, we will find that place
Someday
Reiterating that we will someday find that place and time
Somewhere
Reiterating that that place is somewhere out there waiting for us
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind