‘King and I’ actress was 88

Maureen Hinger, the Sri Lankan actress and former competitor finalist of Miss Universe who played in films such as The king and me And Firearm feveris dead. She was 88 years old.

Sri Lankan actress and model Angela Seneviratne announced Hininet’s death on Monday in an article on Facebook. “May her soul rest in peace,” she added.

Hinger’s daughter, Marisa Zamparelli, later confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter That his mother died of liver insufficiency at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, California, June 29. “It was a magnificent and peaceful passage,” she said at the exit.

Born in Colombo, Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon) in 1937, Hinger was only 18 years old when she was crowned winner of the Miss Ceylon beauty competition in 1955. She would continue to represent her country of origin during the Miss Universe television competition in Long Beach, California, this same year, where she placed the 2nd Runner-Up.

His appearance of Miss Universe not only won him a contract with Universal but also a role not credited in the west of 1956, Heaven pillars. It was not the first time that his first time in front of the camera; Hinsert had an earlier experience with unwanted roles in the 1954 films Circus daughter and the Taylor Elizabeth Taylor Elephant walk while living in Sri Lanka.

The same year, she played another unstredd role as a wife in the 1956 musical adaptation of The king and me. The film – which also featured Deborah Kerr, Yul Brynner and Rita Moreno – would have won five Oscars.

Hingern would not receive her first official theater credit before she played in an episode of the sitcom led by Wally Cox and Ainslie Pryor in 1957, The adventures of Hiram Holliday. Working under the name of Jana Davi, she continued to accumulate credits in popular westerns like Firearm fever, the rawhide path, And Of the armed men of Laredo Before withdrawing from the action in the early 1960s.

In addition to his career and modeling careers, Hinsert was also a dancer and often performed in Los Angeles. She married the designer and artist Mario Armond Zamparelli in 1958, and the couple welcomed three girls together – Gina, Marisa and Andrea – before divorcing in 1970. She then made the knot with William J. Ballard in 1976, and the couple stayed together until his death in 2012.

Hingert is survived by her daughter, Marisa. His daughter Andrea died at 42 in 2009, by THR. His second daughter Gina, a concert promoter and conservative, died from a brain tumor at 59 in 2017.