Gisele MacKenzie TV Schedule

Widely recognized due to her popular appearances on the 1950s television sensation Your Hit Parade and her very own NBC variety series, singer/actress Gisele MacKenzie's popularity surged with the release of her 1955 hit single "Hard to Get," which remained on the charts for 16 weeks. A Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, native whose parents immediately recognized her natural talent when she began playing piano at age two, it wasn't long before young MacKenzie was playing the violin and exercising her vocal chords as well. MacKenzie later trained at the Toronto's Royal Conservatory of Music before entertaining troops during World War II.

It was while there that MacKenzie met Royal Canadian Navy man and bandleader Robert Shuttleworth, the man who would soon integrate her into his civilian band in addition to becoming her first manager and future husband. Her radio show Meet Giselle caught the attention of some vacationing radio scouts who immediately passed her name to Hollywood radio figure Bob Crosby, and by 1951 the emerging songstress was a regular on Crosby's popular Club 15 show as well as a featured performer on The Mario Lanza Show. It was also during this time that MacKenzie would simultaneously record songs for Capitol Records and appear in numerous popular Las Vegas acts.

After catching the eye of Jack Benny while performing in Sin City, she became a regular on The Jack Benny Show, which was the exposure that eventually led her to a five-year stint on Your Hit Parade, where she would perform the seven most popular songs in the nation each week. It was during this time that MacKenzie recorded her own hit, "Hard to Get." In addition to her radio and television work, MacKenzie also found time to appear in film and regional theater. On-stage she would find success in such musical productions as The King and I and Hello, Dolly!, with an appearance in the 1972 mystery One Minute Before Death providing audiences with unexpected chills.

In her later years MacKenzie would appear in such popular television shows as Crazy Like a Fox and Boy Meets World. In early September of 2003, Gisele MacKenzie died in Burbank, CA, of colon cancer. She was 76.