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Nelson Eddy is a Actor and Sculptor American born on 29 june 1901 at Providence (USA)

Nelson Eddy

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Birth name Nelson Ackerman Eddy
Nationality USA
Birth 29 june 1901 at Providence (USA)
Death 6 march 1967 (at 65 years) at Providence (USA)

Nelson Ackerman Eddy (June 29, 1901 – March 6, 1967) was an American singer and actor who appeared in 19 musical films during the 1930s and 1940s, as well as in opera and on the concert stage, radio, television, and in nightclubs. A classically trained baritone, he is best remembered for the eight films in which he costarred with soprano Jeanette MacDonald. He was one of the first "crossover" stars, a superstar appealing both to shrieking bobby soxers as well as opera purists, and in his heyday was the highest paid singer in the world.

During his 40-year career, he earned three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (one each for film, recording, and radio), left his footprints in the wet cement at Grauman's Chinese Theater, earned three Gold records, and was invited to sing at the third inauguration of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941. He also introduced millions of young Americans to classical music and inspired many of them to pursue a musical career.

Biography

Eddy married Ann Denitz Franklin, former wife of noted director Sidney Franklin, on January 19, 1939. Her son, Sidney Jr., became Eddy's stepson, but she and Nelson had no children of their own. They were married for 27 years, until Nelson's death. Ann Eddy never remarried after Nelson's death and died on August 28, 1987. She is buried next to Nelson and his mother, Isabel, in Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Eddy/MacDonald romance
John Kenneth Hilliard, a sound engineer backstage at MGM from 1933 to 1942, reported in 1981 that though Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald were a screen couple, they "hated each other with a vengeance". Despite their ups and downs, an off-screen affair was verified by Jim Bayless, another MGM sound engineer from 1929 to 1942 who built Eddy's home recording equipment in 1934 and taught him how to record multi-track harmonies with himself; this resulted in Eddy recording a record album of 4-part harmony. Bayless later left MGM to be Vice President for newly formed Capitol Records but remained friends with Eddy and for many years recorded Eddy's weekly radio shows for him to critique on disc. Other MGM staff who verified the relationship included their makeup artists William Tuttle and Fred Phillips and fellow singers Miliza Korjus and Rise Stevens.

Sweethearts by Sharon Rich, a biography first published in 1994 and updated and expanded in 2014, claims that MacDonald's marriage to Gene Raymond was engineered by studio boss Louis B. Mayer to prevent Eddy from marrying MacDonald. Rich's original source for this information was Jeanette MacDonald's older sister, actress Blossom Rock. The Eddy-MacDonald romance appears again in print in The Golden Girls of MGM by Jane Ellen Wayne. In these books, it is reported that Eddy's relationship with MacDonald began in late 1933 and continued, with a few breaks, until her death in 1965. Newsreel footage from MacDonald's funeral shows Eddy as the last person exiting the chapel, he is circled by other celebrities such as Lauritz Melchior who offer him condolences. Many of Eddy's personal letters and diary entries indicating a rocky romance with MacDonald were reproduced in Sweethearts.

Intimate relationship with Laurrie Garner
Eddy was intimately involved with author Laurrie Garner who writes about him in her books.