Mary Virginia Martin (December 1, 1913 – November 3, 1990) was an American actress, singer, and Broadway star. A muse of Rodgers and Hammerstein, she originated many leading roles over her career including Nellie Forbush in South Pacific and Maria von Trapp in The Sound of Music. She was named a Kennedy Centre Honouree in 1989. She was the mother of actor Larry Hagman.
As a child she was encouraged by her parents, Juanita and Judge Preston Martin, to study violin and voice. Her love of the theatre was obvious at an early age. She sang in almost every church choir in town, wrote and performed plays for family and friends, and was an avid movie-goer. She began taking voice lessons at age twelve, and by age sixteen she was attending Ward Belmont Finishing School in Nashville, TennesseeAt seventeen she married Benjamin Hagman, an accountant, and they had one son, Larry,. Larry Hagman would grow up to be a well known actor in his own
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right, becoming most famous for his role as ‘J.R. Ewing” in the prime time television drama series “Dallas”. After the birth of her son, she opened the Mary Hagman School of Dance in Weatherford. During a trip to Hollywood to further her dancing studies, Martin's childhood desire to perform was rekindled. Subsequently she moved to Hollywood, divorced her husband in 1935 and spent two years auditioning for the movies.
It was not in the movies, but rather at the Trocadero nightclub, where Martin's career was finally launched. She sang a swing version of "Il Bacio," and the audience, including Broadway producer Lawrence Schwab, went wild. If "Il Bacio" took Martin to Broadway, it was "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" which kept her there. In 1938 she landed the part of Dolly in Leave It to Me at the Imperial Theatre. Her rendition of "Daddy" was a spectacular hit
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and led to star billing and a contract with Paramount Pictures. She eventually made her film debut in 1939’s “The Great Victor Herbert”.
Under contract to Paramount Motion Picture Studios, over the next three years she starred in ten more films, which would comprise almost her entire filmography such as Rhythm on the River, Love Thy Neighbour, Kiss the Boys Goodbye, New York Town, The Birth of Blues, Star Spangled Rhythm, and Happy Go Lucky.
In 1954 she played the title role in “Peter Pan” for 152 performances, earning another Best Actress Tony for her work. She took on the lead for “The Sound of Music” in 1959 and remained with the show for four years, winning her fourth Tony Award for her portrayal of ‘Maria’. She co-starred with Robert Preston in 'I Do! I Do!' in 1966 when she was once more nominated for a Tony Award. Martin's stage career slowed during the 1970s but after the death of her second husband, she returned to Broadway in 1978 in “Do You Turn Somersaults?” She made her final appearance on the London stage
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in the 1980 Royal Variety Performance when she performed “Honeybun” from 'South Pacific.' Martin was honoured by the John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., in 1989.
Martin died on November 3, 1990, at the age of 76. Her long-time friend, Carol Channing, had been at her bedside at Martin's Rancho Mirage, California, home less than an hour before she died of liver cancer. "She was heaven," said Channing. (Compiled from various sources including Wikipedia & Gale Encyclopedia of Biography)