She was born Gisèle Marie Louise Marguerite LaFlèche in
Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1927. MacKenzie spent her childhood in Manitoba where she studied violin and attended the Sacred Heart School as a child. Her first public recital occurred at a hotel in Winnipege when she was 12 years old. Beginning when she was 14, she specialized in violin at
The Royal Conservatory of Music in
Toronto, Ontario. Her six years there included her receiving a scholarship in the graduate school. Her biggest selling song was "
Hard To Get" in 1955. She was also an accomplished classical violinist, studying at The Royal Conservatory of Music; she performed many comedic musical
duets with mentor
Jack Benny. In an often-played clip, she and Benny perform a violin duet of "
Getting to Know You", in which she breaks their synchronization several times to add some extra musical flourishes, to his mock irritation. Finally, he breaks in with a lengthy (and stereotypically mediocre) flourish of his own, and evokes audience laughter with mock indignation: "Fool around with ME, sister!" She was a guest on such shows as
The Jack Benny Program;
The Dinah Shore Chevy Show;
The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford;
The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom;
The Bell Telephone Hour;
The Colgate Comedy Hour;
The Eddie Fisher Show;
The George Gobel Show; and
The Ed Sullivan Show. She acted in
Justice. She appeared frequently in
Las Vegas venues and in numerous North American concerts. She did a European tour with Benny. In the
United States, she replaced
the Andrews Sisters as a regular vocalist on "Club 15" and her guest appearance on Mario Lanza's "Coke Time" resulted in Lanza inviting her to join his show's cast every week. She also hosted a radio show entitled
Airtime at the same time she was appearing on TV's
Your Hit Parade. In 1952–53, she toured with Jack Benny, who recommended her for
Your Hit Parade. During her 4-year tenure on that show, "Hard to Get" became a
hit. She announced in 1957 that she would not be returning to the show for another season. She went on to star in her own short lived Saturday night NBC variety program,
The Gisele MacKenzie Show, and hosted such guests as Benny,
Boris Karloff,
Ronald Reagan,
Bobby Diamond, and folk singer
Jimmie Rodgers; it was cancelled after twentysix weeks. She returned to television in 1963 as Sid Caesar's 4th television wife on
The Sid Caesar Show, in which she did comedy with Caesar and sang a song each week. 1959 saw the release of her first of a series of children's albums, "Gisele MacKenzie sings Lullaby and Goodnight". The album sold very well and resulted in two more for Cricket Play Hour Records (Pickwick). Starting in 1955, during her summer breaks from
Your Hit Parade, she added musical comedies to her resume
musical theater by starring in such classics as
Annie Get Your Gun,
The King and I, and
South Pacific. In 1957 she appeared in the TV drama
Love at Fourth Sight. In 1986, she appeared in several episodes as a temporary recast in the role of
Katherine Chancellor on
The Young and the Restless. She expanded her acting credits in the 1990s, making guest appearances on television series including
Murder, She Wrote,
Boy Meets World, and
MacGyver. MacKenzie has a star on the
Hollywood Walk Of Fame at 1601 Vine. ==Personal life==