Sri Lankan-born actress and former Miss Universe contestant Maureen Hingert has died at age 88 following complications from liver failure. The performer, best known for her role in the 1956 film “The King and I,” passed away on Sunday, June 29, 2025, at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, California.
Her daughter, Marisa Zamparelli, confirmed the news to reporters, stating that “It was a beautiful and peaceful passing.” The family announcement was first made public through a Facebook post by fellow Sri Lankan actress Angela Seneviratne on July 1.
Born Maureen Neliya Hingert on January 9, 1937, in Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), she first gained international recognition as an 18-year-old beauty queen. In 1955, she was crowned Miss Ceylon and went on to represent her country at the Miss Universe competition in Long Beach, California. Her second runner-up finish at the pageant, which was the first Miss Universe contest to be televised, helped put her South Asian island nation “on the map” and launched her Hollywood career.
Following her pageant success, Hingert remained in California and secured a contract with Universal Studios. Her breakthrough role came in 1956 when she appeared as a royal wife in the lavish 20th Century Fox adaptation of “The King and I,” starring alongside Deborah Kerr, Yul Brynner, and Rita Moreno. The film earned nine Academy Award nominations and won five Oscars.
Before achieving fame in Hollywood, Hingert had already appeared in two films produced in her home country in 1954: “Circus Girl” and “Elephant Walk,” the latter starring Elizabeth Taylor. Her American film career expanded with roles in Western films, including “Pillars of the Sky” (1956) opposite Jeff Chandler and Dorothy Malone, and “Gun Fever” (1958), where she played the character Tanana.
Working sometimes under the stage name Jana Davi, Hingert continued to build her filmography with roles in “Gunmen from Laredo” (1959), “Fort Bowie” (1958), and “The Rawhide Trail” (1958). Her television appearances included episodes of “The Adventures of Hiram Holliday,” “Death Valley Days,” and “Captain David Grief,” a short-lived series based on Jack London stories.
Beyond acting, Hingert worked as a dancer, performing at major Los Angeles venues including the Shrine Auditorium. Her modeling work included posing for a photograph from “Gun Fever” that appeared in Playboy magazine in September 1957.
In 1958, Hingert married Mario Armond Zamparelli, chief designer for Howard Hughes’ corporate empire, responsible for RKO Pictures movie posters and the Desert Inn. The couple met when she was modeling for a TWA mural that Zamparelli was painting for Hughes. Their marriage lasted until 1970, during which they had three daughters: Gina, Marisa, and Andrea.
Hingert retired from acting in the early 1960s to focus on raising her family. She later remarried in 1976 to William J. Ballard, and they remained together until his death in 2012. Tragedy struck the family multiple times, with daughter Andrea dying in 2009 at age 42, and Gina, who worked as a concert promoter, succumbing to a brain tumor in 2018 at age 59.
The actress’s death marks the end of a career that spanned the golden age of Hollywood musicals and Western films. Her contribution to cinema, while brief, included appearances in significant productions of the 1950s. Throughout her film and television roles, Hingert represented a bridge between her Sri Lankan heritage and American entertainment industry success.
Hingert is survived by her daughter Marisa Zamparelli. Her legacy includes not only her film work but also her historic achievement as the first person from Ceylon to reach the Miss Universe finals, helping to establish international recognition for her homeland on the global stage.
