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Fabray with Fred Astaire (left) and Jack Buchanan in the classic "Triplets" sequence in The Band Wagon

Nanette Fabray (born October 27, 1920) is an Emmy and Tony Award-winning American actress.

Born Nanette Ruby Bernadette Fabares in San Diego, California, she overcame significant hearing impairment to pursue her career and has been a long-time advocate for the rights of all disabled people. Her honors representing the handicapped include the President's Distinguished Service Award and the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award.

In vaudeville from the age of six, Fabray made her first film appearance as one of Bette Davis' ladies-in-waiting in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939). In 1953, she played her most famous screen role as a Betty Comden-like playwright in MGM's The Band Wagon with Fred Astaire and Jack Buchanan. Their classic musical number "Triplets" was included in That's Entertainment!. Additional film credits include The Subterraneans and The Happy Ending.

Fabray made her Broadway debut in Let's Face It! in 1941. Additional theatre credits included By Jupiter, Bloomer Girl, High Button Shoes, Make a Wish, Love Life for which she won the Tony Award, and Mr. President, which garnered her a second nomination.

In her early Broadway and film appearances, Fabray was credited as Fabares. The pronunciation is the same, but she changed the spelling following an embarrassing moment on Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town, when the host, reading a cue card, mispronounced her name on live television as "Nanette Fa-bare-ass."

Fabray became a household name with her appearances on Caesar's Hour, for which she won three Emmys. Additional television credits include regular roles on One Day at a Time and Coach, in which she played the mother of real-life niece Shelley Fabares, a recurring role on Mary Tyler Moore, frequent guest shots on The Carol Burnett Show, and appearances on Burke's Law, Love, American Style, Maude, The Love Boat, and Murder, She Wrote. Her eponymous 1961 comedy series was cancelled after thirteen episodes.

Fabray's first husband, Dave Tebet (1947-51), was a Vice-President of NBC. Her second, screenwriter and sometime-director Ranald MacDougall (1957-73), with whom she had one child, numbered Mildred Pierce and Cleopatra among his credits. He was President of the Writers Guild of America in the early 1970s.

Fabray has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Currently, Fabray is opening in "The Damsel Dialogues," an original revue by composer Dick de Benedictus, with direction/choreography by Miriam Nelson (Breakfast at Tiffany's). The show focuses on women's' issues with life, love, loss and the work place. The play will perform at the Whitefire Theatre in Sherman Oaks, California, March 3 - April 7, 2007, Friday and Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 2pm. For reservations, dial 818-991-1485.

• Nanette Fabray at the Internet Movie Database
• Nanette Fabray at the Internet Broadway Database
• Nanette Fabray at TV.com