Date of Birth

29 June 1901, Providence, Rhode Island, USA

Date of Death

6 March 1967, Miami Beach, Florida, USA

The only career Nelson Eddy ever considered was singing. His parents were singers, his grandparents were musicians. Unable to afford a teacher, he learned by imitating opera recordings. At age 14 he worked as a telephone operator in a Philadelphia iron foundry. He sold newspaper advertising and performed in amateur musicals. Dr. Edouard Lippe coached him and loaned him the money to study in Dresden and Paris. He gave his first concert recital in 1928 in Philadelphia. In 1933 he did 18 encores for an audience that included an assistant to MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer, who signed him to a seven-year contract. After MGM acting lessons and initial trials, his first real success came as the Yankee scout to Jeanette MacDonald's French princess in Naughty Marietta (1935), a huge box-office success made on a small budget. Eddy and MacDonald were paired twice more (Rose-Marie (1936), Maytime (1937)) when Metropolitan Opera star Grace Moore was unavailable; they became an institution. Their last work together was in 1942. Critics nearly always panned his acting. He did have a large radio following (his theme song: "Short'nin Bread"). In 1959 Eddy and MacDonald issued a recording of their movie hits which sold well. In 1953 he had a fairly successful nightclub routine with Gale Sherwood which ran until his death in 1967. He and his wife Anne Denitz had no children.

Suffered a fatal stroke while performing in concert.

Hosted his own weekly radio show in the 1950s

Interred at Hollywood Memorial Cemetery (now called Hollywood Forever), Hollywood, California, USA, Section B, across the street from the Cathedral Mausoluem and a bit to the right.

Distantly related to U.S. President Martin Van Buren.

He had one child, Jon, with ex-girlfriend Maybelle Marston, born sometime in the early 1930s.

He had a stepson, Sidney Franklin Jr..

Was a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, a national music fraternity.

He was an accomplished sculptor, and often crafted bronze statues of his co-stars and directors. The statue he made of Susanna Foster was used in her film Phantom of the Opera (1943).

There is a street in Hollywood Forever cemetery now named for him.

Was portrayed by Mick Hucknall in De-Lovely (2004). In the movie, his portrayal was a cameo.

His duets with Jeanette MacDonald are lampooned in the musical "A Day In Hollywood/A Night In The Ukraine." In the show, a movie star named Jeanette sings the song, "Oh, Nelson, What You're Putting Me Through" -- an operatic lament about her boring co-star -- while standing with a mannequin dressed in a Canadian Mounties uniform.

He was awarded 3 Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Motion Pictures at 6311 Hollywood Boulevard; for Radio at 6512 Hollywood Boulevard; and for Recording at 1639 Vine Street in Hollywood, California.

Louis B. Mayer ordered Eddy to test for his debut in Ring Up the Curtain (1933). The 33-year old newcomer took a record 58 takes before the exasperated test director gave up. Despite this failure, Mayer overruled the general consensus of Eddy's acting talent and ordered him used for a singing sequence in the film only

Price:  £45.00