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 Joy Winans Deborah Joy Winans Deborah Joy Imani Winans (born September 6, 1983) is an American actress and singer, and member of the musical Winans family. She is starring as Charity Greenleaf-Satterlee in the Oprah Winfrey Network drama series, "Greenleaf". Winans was born in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of Carvin and Deborah Kerr Winans. She graduated with a BFA degree from Wayne State University. She spent a month in Moscow at the Moscow Art Theatre School for additional training, and received an MFA degree in acting from the California Institute of the Arts. In 2014, she began her acting career appearing in