{{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 = | death_place = | other_names = | occupation = Actress | years_active = 1954–1976 }} '''Olive Moorefield''' (born August 23, 1932) is an American actress and singer.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|title=Moorefield (verh. Moorefield-Mach), Olive|doi=10.1553/0x0001da04|language=de|encyclopedia=Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon|doi-access=free}}</ref> She appeared in more than twenty films from 1954 to 1976.
== Early years == 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|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 Institute of Technology and then transferred to the 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>
== Career == On stage, Moorefield sang with the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera<ref name=Ebony /> She appeared in the 1952 Broadway musical ''My Darlin' Aida'' at the Winter Garden Theatre.<ref>{{IBDB name|110872|Olive Moorefield}}</ref> When that production closed, the 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'' 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'' 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|doi-access=free}}</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://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1965/10/20/94994379.html?zoom=15.3 facsimile])</ref> Together with 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" />
==Partial filmography== {| class="wikitable" |- ! Year ! Title ! Role |- |1956 |''The Old Forester House'' |Singer |- |rowspan=3|1957 |''Just Once a Great Lady'' |Olive, singer |- |''The Legs of Dolores'' |Singer |- |''Love from Paris'' |Zaza, cleaner |- |1962 | ''Street of Temptation'' |Singer |- | 1965 |''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' |Cassy |}
== References == {{Reflist|30em}}
==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