Anita Ellis was a Canadian-born American singer and actress.
Early years
Anita Kert was born in Montreal, Quebec, the eldest of four children born to Orthodox Jewish parents, Harry and Lillian "Libbie" Kert. She had a younger sister and two younger brothers, one of whom, Lawrence Frederick Kert, became actor/singer Larry Kert. 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, Vera-Ellen and Jeanne Crain. Twenty-eight years after Gilda was released, 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, The New Jack Carson Show, Tommy Riggs and Betty Lou. Billed as Anita Ellis, she was also a regular on The Charlie McCarthy Show and The Jack Carson Show. She was a regular guest on The Red Skelton Show.
Personal life
Ellis married U.S. Army Lt. Frank Ellis on January 23, 1943, in Tucson, Arizona. They divorced in 1946. She remarried, to neurologist , on July 31, 1960; the couple remained together until Shapiro's death at age 80 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 lived in Manhattan and had suffered from Alzheimer's disease since 2000; she died on October 28, 2015, aged 95, from the disease.
Other
Ellis had a pilot's license and flew her own plane for pleasure.
