Nan Wynn, born Marsha Vatz was an American big-band singer, and and film actress.
Background
Wynn was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania and grew up in Wheeling, West Virginia, where she attended high school, and sang in the school choir. At the age of sixteen, while spending a weekend in New York City with her mother, her singing came to the attention of a retired producer who was guesting at the same establishment.
Career
She sang and recorded throughout the 1930s and 1940s with the Emery Deutsch, Rudy Vallee, Eddie Duchin, Richard Himber, Hal Kemp, Hudson-DeLange, Raymond Scott, Teddy Wilson and Freddie Rich orchestras. Wynn"s father owned a department store in Wheeling, and traveled often to New New York He booked Wynn at a Peekskill vaudeville house, the owner of which engaged her to sing at his two other properties in Kingston, New York and Newburgh, New New York After working the vaudeville circuit, the late 1930s saw Wynn landing at radio station WNEW in New York for a thirteen show per week stint and honing her talent under the mentorship of Jimmy Rich, the singing coach to Dinah Shore, Bea Wain, and Barry Wood, among others
Radio show stints followed with Rudy Vallee"s orchestra, and with Hal Kemp"s orchestra on his "Time to Shine" radio show.
Having earned the moniker "molten mama with the lava larynx", she caught the eye of a Warner Brothers movie scout while singing at Chicago"s Pump House, leading to a role in Million Dollar Baby (1941). Wynn is perhaps best known for dubbing Rita Hayworth"s singing voice in several films, including "The Strawberry Blonde" (1941), My Gal Sal (1942), and You Were Never Lovelier (1942), In the late 1940s she appeared on the Morey Amsterdam and Editor Sullivan shows.
Nan Wynn"s career was cut short abruptly in 1949 by the loss of her voice following the surgical removal of a cancerous tumor which resulted in a severed facial nerve. Refusing to accept the medical prognosis that a recovery was not possible, Wynn regained her speech and facial control by 1955, at which point she was briefly signed to Radio Corporation of America Victor.
Wynn appeared in Billy Rose"s 1944 musical, The Seven Lively Arts and Finian"s Rainbow in 1948.