- Born
- Died
- Birth nameNelson Ackerman Eddy
- Nicknames
- Nels
- The Baritone
- The Singing Capon
- Height6′ (1.83 m)
- The only career Nelson Eddy ever considered was singing. His parents, Isabel (Kendrick) and William Darius Eddy, 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.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>
- SpouseAnn Denitz Franklin(January 19, 1939 - March 6, 1967) (his death)
- He had one child, Jon, with ex-girlfriend Maybelle Marston, born sometime in the early 1930s.
- 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).
- He was a lifelong supporter of the Republican party.
- Suffered a fatal stroke while performing in concert.
- In 1959, after 23 years, "Indian Love Call" hit the million mark in sales.
- [on why he refused to see his own films] I was too ashamed of them.
- [during his 1960s nightclub tour] I want to keep going until I drop.
- [In 1957] I don't know why people still want to believe that Jeanette MacDonald and I were a couple off the set. There's no truth to that rumor, at all. She's happily married to Gene Raymond and I'm happily married to Anne. I guess people want to believe that what they see on the screen is reality while in actuality, it's just a movie!
- [reacting to seeing himself in an elaborate costume and makeup onscreen] Get him. Ain't he purty?
- [In 1934, about his career] I engaged a dramatic coach and began to study the technique of acting on the screen. That same day I discovered how little I really knew, and I've been studying ever since.
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