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{{short description|American actress and singer (born 1932)}}
{{BLP sources|date=January 2017}}
{{Infobox person
| image = Olive Moorefield (1970).jpg
| caption = Olive Moorefield in 1970
| name = Olive Moorefield
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1932|8|23
| birth_place = [[Pittsburgh]], United States
| death_date =
Line 9 ⟶ 11:
| othername =
| occupation = Actress
| years active =
}}
'''Olive Moorefield''' (born
== Early years ==
==Selected filmography==▼
Moorefield is one of eight children. When she was 5 years old, she began studying music, and at 8 she was singing solos in church. At 16, she began studying [[opera]] with the help of a $4,000 scholarship from a radio station in her home town [[Pittsburgh]]. Her early employment included babysitting, singing in night clubs, and stenography.<ref name=Ebony>{{cite magazine|title=New Musical Star in Old Vienna|magazine=[[Ebony (magazine)|Ebony]]|date=November 1962|volume=XVIII|issue=1|pages=61–62, 64, 66|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mz8uGcoeLZQC&dq=%22Olive+Moorefield%22&pg=PA61|access-date=July 11, 2023}}</ref> After she graduated from Homestead High School, she attended [[Carnegie Mellon University|Carnegie Institute of Technology]] and then transferred to the [[Chatham University|Pennsylvania College for Women]].<ref name="pp">{{cite news |last1=Mosby |first1=Aline |title=City Singer Hits High Note in Vienna |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/78780037/olive-moorefield/ |access-date=November 27, 2021|work=[[The Pittsburgh Press]]|agency=[[United Press International]]|date=October 7, 1969 |page=21|via = [[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable sortable"▼
== Career ==
On stage, Moorefield sang with the [[Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera]]<ref name=Ebony /> She appeared in the 1952 [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] musical ''[[My Darlin' Aida]]'' at the [[Winter Garden Theatre]].<ref>{{IBDB name|110872|Olive Moorefield}}</ref> When that production closed, the [[United States Information Agency|US Information Service]] (USIS) employed her to sing American folk songs and spirituals for American military personnel stationed in Austria. She also performed in ''[[Carousel (musical)|Carousel]]'' and ''[[Show Boat]]'' in a theater that the USIS opened in Vienna.<ref name="pp" /> She used her free time there to study singing and to attend opera and auditioned for [[Marcel Prawy]] who brought her to the [[Vienna Volksoper]]. There, she sang Bianca, and later Kate, in ''[[Kiss Me, Kate|Kiss Me Kate]]'' in 1956.<ref name=Ebony /> A reviewer in the ''[[Österreichische Musikzeitschrift]]'' called Moorefield a "hurricane of vitality, high spirits and joy".<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Early Years of the American Musical in Vienna|author=J. Daniel Jenkins|journal=[[Journal of Austrian-American History]]|date=18 May 2022|volume=6|number=1|pages=89–103|doi=10.5325/jaustamerhist.6.1.0089}}</ref>
In 1964, Moorefield sang the role of Laetitia in a German-language production of [[Gian Carlo Menotti]]'s ''[[The Old Maid and the Thief]]'', conducted by [[Wolfgang Rennert]] and directed by [[Otto Schenk]], for [[Bayerischer Rundfunk]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7988872--gian-carlo-menotti-die-alte-jungfer-und-der-dieb-das-medium|title=Gian Carlo Menotti: ''Die Alte Jungfer und der Dieb'' and ''Das Medium''|type=DVD|date=August 31, 2010|access-date=July 11, 2023|publisher=Presto Music|id=Cat. No. 101515}}</ref> At the Volksoper, she portrayed Bess in a 1965 production of ''[[Porgy and Bess]]''.<ref>{{cite news|title=Viennese Get Plenty of Opera out of Catfish Row|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1965/10/20/archives/viennese-gel-plenty-of-opera-out-of-catfish-row.html|access-date=July 11, 2023|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=October 19, 1965|page=53}} ([https://nyti.ms/44Bj3p4 facsimile])</ref> Together with [[Peter Alexander (Austrian performer)|Peter Alexander]], she published in 1966 the album ''Kiss Me Kate''.<ref>{{Discogs master|1486839|Kiss Me Kate}}</ref> At the [[Oper Frankfurt]], she played Jenny in [[Kurt Weill]]'s and [[Bertolt Brecht]]'s ''[[Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny]]'' in 1966, directed by [[Harry Buckwitz]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.alamy.com/dec-12-1966-aufstieg-und-fall-der-stadt-mahagonny-rise-and-fall-of-image69425302.html|title=Dec. 12, 1966 – ''Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny''|type=photo|publisher=[[Alamy]]|access-date=July 11, 2023}}</ref> In 1972 at the [[Schauspielhaus Zürich]] she played Spelunken-Jenny in Brecht's/Weill's ''[[Die Dreigroschenoper]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.abebooks.com/Programmheft-Schauspielhaus-Z%C3%BCrich-197273-DREIGROSCHENOPER-Brecht/30690368360/bd|title=Programmheft Schauspielhaus Zürich 1972/73. ''Die Dreigroschenoper''|language=de|editor=Dietbert Reich|publisher=[[Schauspielhaus Zürich]]|access-date=July 11, 2023|via=[[AbeBooks]]}}</ref> Moorefield reprised her Jenny from ''Mahagonny'' in 1973 at the Volksoper.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://jugendkultur.at/wp-content/uploads/Programm-Mahagonny.pdf|page=64|chapter=Mahagonny in Österreich|language=de|title=Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny|type=program notes|date=January 2012|publisher=Vienna State Opera|access-date=July 11, 2023}}</ref>
Moorefield's work in films included at least 15 German and Viennese motion pictures. She also recorded German [[Schlager]] and performed in an Italian-language production of ''Kiss Me Kate'' on Italian television.<ref name=Ebony /> In 1962, she became one of the first TV stars in Germany.<ref name="pp" /> Her work on European TV included starring in the drama ''Requiem für eine Nonne'', an adaptation of [[William Faulkner]]'s 1951 novel ''[[Requiem for a Nun]]''.<ref name="pp" />
The American National Opera Association recognized Moorefield in 2014 with the "Lift Every Voice" Legacy Award.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.noa.org/initiatives/legacy-project.html|title=The Legacy Project|access-date=July 11, 2023|publisher=National Opera Association}}</ref>
== Personal life ==
Moorefield married Kurt Macht, a doctor whom she met when he treated her for a throat problem in Vienna. They have one son.<ref name="pp" />
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
|-
|1956
| 1965▼
|''[[
|Singer
|Cassy▼
|-
|''[[Just Once a Great Lady (1957 film)|Just Once a Great Lady]]''
|Olive, singer
|-
▲|rowspan=2|1957
|''[[The Legs of Dolores]]''
|Singer
|▼
|-
|''[[Love from Paris]]''
|Zaza, cleaner
|-
|1962
| ''[[Street of Temptation]]''
|Singer
▲|-
▲| 1965
|''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin (1965 film)|Uncle Tom's Cabin]]''
▲|Cassy
|}
== References ==
{{
==Further reading==
* {{cite web|url=http://www.fuenfzigerjahresaenger.de/Lexikon/Moorefield.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120819034007/http://www.fuenfzigerjahresaenger.de/Lexikon/Moorefield.htm|archive-date=August 19, 2012|title=Olive Moorefield|language=de|type=biography, discography, filmography|website=fuenfzigerjahresaenger.de}}
== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
* {{IMDb name|0602051}}
* {{Discogs artist|1698375}}
{{Portal bar|Biography|Film}}
{{Authority control|state=collapsed}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moorefield, Olive}}
[[Category:1932 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:American musical theatre actresses]]
[[Category:20th-century American women opera singers]]
[[Category:American film actresses]]
[[Category:American expatriates in Austria]]
[[Category:American expatriate actresses]]
[[Category:21st-century American women]]
[[Category:Actresses from Pittsburgh]]
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