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Ethel Merman Biography

Actor / Singer

Name at birth: Ethel Agnes Zimmerman

Ethel Merman's brassy voice and knock-'em-dead style made her a favorite with Broadway audiences. She sang "I Got Rhythm" in the 1930 George and Ira Gershwin musical Girl Crazy, and in 1946 she played cowgirl Annie Oakley in the original Broadway production of Annie Get Your Gun. The latter show's hit number, "There's No Business Like Show Business," became Merman's signature tune. She continued performing into the 1970s, often appearing on TV as a beloved symbol of Broadway sass. She also had a memorable turn as a nagging mother-in-law in the slapstick movie It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963, with Mickey Rooney and ZaSu Pitts).

Extra credit: Merman was married four times; the fourth marriage, to actor Ernest Borgnine in 1964, lasted 32 days... Like Zsa Zsa Gabor, Merman was once a guest villainess ("Lola Lasagne") on the 1960s TV series Batman... Merman was one of several actresses to follow Carol Channing as the star of the Broadway show Hello Dolly... Annie Get Your Gun was revived on Broadway in 1999, with Bernadette Peters (and then Reba McIntyre) starring as Annie Oakley... Merman openly lied about her age and her birth year is given as anywhere between 1906 and 1912; modern biographers have settled on 1908 as the year she was born.

Other song-and-dance stars include Gwen Verdon, Judy Garland and Gene Kelly.

Blog posts mentioning Ethel Merman:

• Gopher, Isaac, Ethel, Etc.