Gisele MacKenzie

Born 10 January 1927 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Singer-actress Gisele MacKenzie, who became one of early television's biggest stars through her appearances on "Your Hit Parade."

Once known as Canada's first lady of song, the daughter of a Winnipeg doctor and musically gifted mother moved to Los Angeles with her family in 1951.

Two years later she had joined "Your Hit Parade," whose regulars would sing the seven most popular songs of the week.

She stayed with the program until 1957 when she left to headline her own musical variety program, "The Gisele MacKenzie Show." It lasted only half a year.

She returned to weekly television in 1963 as a regular on "The Sid Caesear Show."

MacKinzie began singing and playing the violin and piano as a child in Canada, studying at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto. She appeared on her own Canadian Broadcasting Corp. show, "Meet Gisele," before moving to the United States.

In Los Angeles, she began appearing on radio with Edgar Bergen and Morton Downey and was a regular on Bob Crosby's Club 15 show and a featured performer on radio's "The Mario Lanza Show."

In 1952 and '53 she toured with Jack Benny, who recommended her for a spot on "Your Hit Parade."

She continued to appear regularly on television into the '90s, on such shows as "Studio One," "Kraft Television Theatre," "Bachelor Father," "The Hollywood Squares," "Murder, She Wrote," "MacGyver" and "Boy Meets World."

Died of colon cancer on 5 September 2003 Burbank,

at Providence St. Joseph's Medical Center in Burbank, California, of colon cancer. Survivors include her daughter, Gigi Downs and a son, Mac Shuttleworth.