The King and I (1956 film) O'Hara, who had a pleasant soprano voice, was originally cast, but Richard Rodgers did not agree to the casting. It was Yul Brynner who pressed for Deborah Kerr to play the role. Marni Nixon provided Kerr's singing for the film. Nixon and Kerr worked side-by-side in the recording studio for songs which combined speaking and singing. Nixon would also dub Kerr's singing the following year, for the film "An Affair to Remember". Donald Bogle's biography of Dorothy Dandridge claims that Dandridge was offered the role of Tuptim in partial fulfillment of her three-picture contract with 20th Century-Fox, but that Dandridge
Deborah Kerr an Academy Honorary Award for her career in 1994. She was also nominated four times for the BAFTA Award for Best British Actress: "The End of the Affair" (1955), "Tea and Sympathy" (1956), "The Sundowners" (1961) and "The Chalk Garden" (1964). She received one Emmy Award nomination in 1985 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Special for "A Woman of Substance". She was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama for "Edward, My Son" (1949), "Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison" (1957) and "Separate Tables" (1958). Deborah Kerr Deborah Jane Trimmer