Claramae Turner was born on October 28, 1920 in Dinuba, California, USA as Claramae Haas. She was an actress, known for Carousel (1956), NBC Television Opera Theatre (1950) and The Ed Sullivan Show (1948). She was married to Frank Hoffman and Robert Turner. She died on May 18, 2013 in Santa Rosa, California.
She was only thirty-six when she played Cousin Nettie in the 1956 film of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Carousel", though she was made up to look about ten or fifteen years older.
2
Made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1946, in Gounod's "Faust".
3
She is still the only Metropolitan Opera singer to have appeared in a film version of a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. Patricia Neway, who played Nettie in the 1967 television version of "Carousel", was a member of the New York City Opera. Metropolitan Opera bass-baritone Giorgio Tozzi, who dubbed Rosanno Brazzi's singing voice in the 1958 film version of "South Pacific", was heard but not seen in that film, and the 2001 television version of "South Pacific" did not use any opera singers, and the latest television version of the show was a live telecast.
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Participated in the first complete opera recorded by the Metropolitan Opera Company in 1947. The opera, released that same year by Columbia Records, was Engelbert Humperdinck's "Hansel und Gretel," sung in English translation. Singing the role of the Stepmother, she was joined by fellow Met luminaries Risë Stevens (Hansel), Nadine Conner (Gretel), Thelma Votipka (The Witch), and John Brownlee (The Father). Max Rudolf led the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus for this recording, which remained in print through the early 1980s.
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The song "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" was reportedly written for her.
Actress
Title
Year
Status
Character
Festival
1961
TV Series
Dame Quickly
Carousel
1956
Cousin Nettie
NBC Television Opera Theatre
1950
TV Series
Mother
Soundtrack
Title
Year
Status
Character
Carousel
1956
performer: "June Is Bustin' Out All Over" 1945, "This Was a Real Nice Clambake" 1945, "You'll Never Walk Alone" 1945 - uncredited
$1.9 Million
