Name Anita Ellis Role Singer | Siblings Larry Kert | |
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Albums I Wonder What Became of Me Similar People Nan Wynn, Larry Kert, Fred Astaire, Martha Mears, Jane Russell | ||
Toyland anita ellis
Anita Kert Ellis (born Anita Kurt; April 12, 1920 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian-born American singer and actress.
Contents
- Toyland anita ellis
- Anita ellis interview and songs with ellis larkins 1979 tv
- Early years
- Voice doubling
- Radio
- Personal life
- Later years
- Other
- Filmography
- References
Anita ellis interview and songs with ellis larkins 1979 tv
Early years
Anita Kurtwas born to Orthodox Jewish parents, Harry and Lillian (née Pearson; originally Peretz) Kurt, the eldest of four children. She had two younger sisters and a brother, Lawrence Frederick Kurt, who became actor/singer Larry Kert (1930–1991). The family moved to Hollywood when she was nine years old. She graduated from Hollywood High School in 1938 and attended the College of Music in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Ellis became a naturalized United States citizen in 1950.
Voice doubling
Ellis dubbed the singing voices of such actresses as Rita Hayworth (notably in Gilda, 1946), Vera-Ellen and Jeanne Crain.
Twenty-eight years after Gilda came out, entertainment writer Rex Reed reminisced in print about Ellis's voice: "I fell in love with Anita Ellis when I was 8 years old. ... Only I didn't know she was Anita Ellis, I thought she was Rita Hayworth. ... That was the sexiest voice in 1946, and it kept turning people on for years ..."
Radio
In 1941, she joined WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio, as a singer. Billed as Anita Kurt, she was a regular on Open House (also known as The Ona Munson Show), The New Jack Carson Show, Tommy Riggs and Betty Lou.
Billed as Anita Ellis, she was also a regular on The Charlie McCarthy Show:72 and The Jack Carson Show.:169 She was a regular guest on The Red Skelton Show. (Two sources list Ellis as one of the vocalists on Skelton's show, without the "guest" modifier.):282:545
Personal life
Ellis married U.S. Army Lt. Frank Ellis on January 23, 1943 in Tucson, Arizona. They divorced in 1946. (Colonel Ellis died in San Diego on December 18, 1957 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.) She remarried, to Mortimer Fromberg Shapiro (a neurologist), on July 31, 1960; the couple remained together until Shapiro's death on June 6, 1995. Both unions were childless.
She "traveled through the wilderness of Africa and the Himalayas, and taught nature studies at the American Museum of Natural History." In the 1950s, Ellis stopped performing while she underwent psychoanalysis. She returned to professional singing with performances in nightclubs and a recording contract with Epic Records. In 1957, columnist Dorothy Kilgallen wrote: "Anita Ellis ... has surprised everyone with her new jazz singer style. She gives her analyst credit for the New Sound."
Later years
A newspaper article in 1979 reported that Ellis had suffered from stage fright for more than 25 years. Ellis described her condition as "not just stage fright. It's more than that." She added: "It's really crippling. It's kept me from my own gifts. It just stops me cold. I don't sing."
She eventually ended her career in 1987 due to that stage fright. A widow, she lives in Manhattan and suffers from Alzheimer's disease.
Other
Ellis had a pilot's license and flew her own plane for pleasure.
Filmography
She performed in the following films: