All in the Family: Marni Nixon and Andrew Gold

A Musical Connection: Mother and Son, Marni Nixon and Andrew Gold

Soprano Marni Nixon, who dubbed the singing voices for some of the most iconic songs in musical film history — including My Fair Lady, West Side Story and The King and I — is the mother of  singer/songwriter Andrew Gold who penned the 1978 Billboard Hot 100 Hit and Golden Girls’ theme song “Thank You for Being a Friend”.

Marni Nixon and Andrew Gold, Mother And Son Songsters

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Marni Nixon, the singing voice behind My Fair Lady, West Side Story and The King and I

In addition to dubbing the singing voices for Audrey Hepburn’s Eliza Doolittle (My Fair Lady), Natalie Wood’s Maria (West Side Story), and Deborah Kerr’s Anna (The King and I), Nixon was also, more recently, the singing voice of Grandmother Fa in Disney’s Mulan (1998).  If you want to catch a glimpse of Marni Nixon on screen, you can see her as Sister Sophia in the film The Sound of Music singing a few solo lines in “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?”

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The Best of Andrew Gold album featuring “Thank You for Being a Friend”

Andrew Gold also wrote the 1977 Top Ten Billboard hit “Lonely Boy”,  as well as played and/or sang (on tracks or in live performances) with Carly Simon, Linda Ronstadt, Stephen Bishop, America, Maria Muldaur, Neil Diamond, Freddie Mercury, Karla Bonoff, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, Brian Wilson, James Taylor, Roy Orbison, Don Henley, Bette Midler, and more.

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–Annmarie Gatti for Classic Movie Hub