Maureen Hingert, ‘The King and I' actress and Miss Universe star, dead at 88

New York Post

03-07-2025

Actor and Miss Universe finalist Maureen Hingert has died. She was 88.
The 'King and I' star passed away Sunday of liver failure at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, Calif., according to her daughter, Marisa Zamparelli.
'It was a beautiful and peaceful passing,' Marisa told The Hollywood Reporter.
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7 Maureen Hingert at London Heathrow Airport in 1955.
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7 Maureen Hingert died of liver failure.
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Hingert was born on January 9, 1937 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. She moved to Los Angeles for college.
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At age 18, Hingert was crowned Miss Ceylon and then finished second runner-up in the 1955 Miss Universe contest held in Long Beach, Calif., the first in the competition's history to be televised.
7 Maureen Hingert (second to the far right) at the Miss Universe 1955 competition.
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Hingert's pageant success helped launch her career in Hollywood. She was best known for her role as a royal wife in Walter Lang's 1956 film 'The King and I,' an adaptation of the 1951 Rodgers & Hammerstein musical of the same name.
The 20th Century-Fox feature starred Deborah Kerr, Yul Brynner, Rita Moreno, Martin Benson and Rex Thompson. It was nominated for nine Oscars and won five.
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Hingert followed up 'The King and I' with her roles as Tanana in 1958's 'Gun Fever' and Rosita in 1959's 'Gunmen from Laredo.'
7 Yul Brynner, Deborah Kerr in 'The King and I.'
©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection
7 Maureen Hingert, Mark Stevens in 'Gun Fever.'
Courtesy Everett Collection
She also appeared in 1956's 'Pillars of the Sky' opposite Jeff Chandler and Dorothy Malone, 1954's 'Elephant Walk' alongside Elizabeth Taylor, and 1958's 'Fort Bowie' and 'The Rawhide Trail.'
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On television, Hingert was in episodes of 'The Adventures of Hiram Holliday,' 'Death Valley Days' and 'Captain David Grief.'
7 Maureen Hingert, Maxwell Reed in 'Captain David Grief.'
Courtesy Everett Collection
Hingert was often credited as Jana Davi in her acting projects.
The late star was also a dancer and gave solo performances at major Los Angeles venues including the Shrine Auditorium.
7 Frank Richards, Maureen Hingert in 'Death Valley Days.'
Courtesy Everett Collection
In 1958, Hingert married her first husband, designer Mario Armond Zamparelli, who worked closely with aerospace engineer Howard Hughes.
The couple met when Hingert was modeling for a TWA mural that Mario was painting for Hughes. They had three daughters, Marisa, Gina and Andrea, before their divorce in 1970.
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Gina, a concert promoter in LA, died in 2018 of a brain tumor at age 59. Andrea died in 2009 at age 42.
Hingert got married for the second time to William J. Ballard in 1976. Ballard died in 2012.