Obit: Actor/singer Howard Keel (1919-2004)

Subject: Obit: Howard Keel
From: greg stephens
Date: 07 Nov 04 - 04:46 PM

Doesn't amtter much which your favourite musical film was. Seven Brides for Seven Brother, Calamity Jane, Oklahoma, whatever. He was in them all. Personally I shall be putting on the Seven Brides video for my tribute, How about you?

Subject: RE: Obit: Howard Keel
From: Rabbi-Sol
Date: 07 Nov 04 - 04:59 PM

I remember him playing opposite Kathryn Grayson in Kismet and The Vagabond King.    SOL ZELLER

Subject: RE: Obit: Howard Keel
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 07 Nov 04 - 05:03 PM

Didn't he also do Kiss Me, Kate? When did it happen? I missed the news. Too sad. This has been a bad week. Our only cheer comes in reflecting that we managed to keep Lloyd Doggett in the House of Reps.    Tw

Subject: RE: Obit: Howard Keel
From: RangerSteve
Date: 07 Nov 04 - 05:40 PM

Men sung like men back then, and Howard Keel was among the best. These days, we get Michael Crawford whispering his way through musicals.

Subject: RE: Obit: Howard Keel
From: Joybell
Date: 07 Nov 04 - 06:39 PM

You're right RangerSteve. I can't take the whispering musical either.
"Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" has always been one of my favourites. I first fell for Howard Keel when I was about five. We'll watch "Calamity Jane" being as that's the only one we have on hand. Joy

Subject: RE: Obit: Howard Keel
From: Cllr
Date: 07 Nov 04 - 07:02 PM

io watched howard keel in kis me kate several times when we did it atUniversity cllr

Subject: RE: Obit: Howard Keel
From: GUEST,Chris B (Born Again Scouser)
Date: 07 Nov 04 - 07:22 PM

Be a lot of sobbin' tonight...

Subject: RE: Obit: Howard Keel
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Nov 04 - 07:44 PM

Unsinkable Molly Brown. Big, big, voice. Good night sweet prince.

Subject: RE: Obit: Howard Keel
From: Ferrara
Date: 07 Nov 04 - 07:46 PM

Oh my. I was madly in love with him. Annie Get Your Gun, Oklahoma, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Showboat, Rose Marie, Calamity Jane, not sure how many others I saw. A musical didn't have to start Howard Keel for us to see it, but he starred in so many of them! Definitely had recordings of others including Kiss Me Kate, I think I saw that one, and Lovely To Look At, which I know I didn't see.

For sheer fun I loved Annie Get Your Gun the most, but that was as much for Betty Hutton's lively style as it was for Howard Keel's part in it. Re-seeing them on video I liked "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" best. Still find myself singing plenty of the songs from all these movies. Will always see his face and his smile as he sang them. I "think" I remember specific bits and expressions, such as the phrase in No Business Like Show Business, "The towel you've taken from the Grand Hotel...." A very Howard Keel moment. ...

Unless that was someone else singing that phrase and my memory is playing its tricks again.... I hate to say in public that I remember anything, half the time I'm remembering it "not-quite-the-way-it-happened."

Anyway Howard Keel was just fine far as i'm concerned.

Subject: RE: Obit: Howard Keel
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 07 Nov 04 - 08:26 PM

Yeah, guys -- but, When? Did he die, I mean.    Tw

Subject: RE: Obit: Howard Keel
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Nov 04 - 10:57 PM

That was Harve Presnell in The Unsinkable Molly Brown.

I adored Howard Keel all through my teen years and beyond. Anyone remember Rose Marie with Ann Blythe and Fernando Lamas? I just looked up his filmography and remember now the movie he made with Ester Williams (Jupiter's Daughter. I even saw The Day of the Triffids, a film in which Howard's acting skills were largely wasted. (I liked the BBC tv version much better when it came out in the 1980s).

Ironic that wasn't there a Dallas reunion on television tonight? He was in that for a while--was he in the program this evening?

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: Howard Keel
From: GUEST,Passerby
Date: 07 Nov 04 - 11:07 PM

Howard Keel, Star of Musicals, Dies at 85

                         By BOB THOMAS Sunday, November 07, 2004

                         LOS ANGELES - Howard Keel, the
                         broad-shouldered baritone who
                         romanced his way through a
                         series of glittery MGM musicals
                         such as "Kiss Me Kate" and
                         "Annie Get Your Gun" and later
                         revived his career with
                         television's "Dallas," died
                         Sunday. He was 85.

                         Keel died Sunday morning of
                         colon cancer at his home in Palm
                         Desert, according to his son,
                         Gunnar.

                         Keel starred in Rodgers and
                         Hammerstein musicals in New
                         York and London before being
                         signed to an MGM contract after
                         World War II. The timing was
                         perfect: He became a star with his first MGM film, playing Frank Butler to Betty
                         Hutton's Annie Oakley in "Annie Get Your Gun."

                         Keel's size and lusty voice made him an ideal leading man for such stars as Esther
                         Williams ("Pagan Love Song," "Texas Carnival," "Jupiter's Darling"), Ann Blyth ("Rose
                         Marie," "Kismet"), Kathryn Grayson ("Show Boat," "Lovely to Look At," "Kiss Me Kate")
                         and Doris Day ("Calamity Jane").

                         His own favorite film was the exuberant "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers."

                         "It was a fine cast and lots of fun to make," Keel remarked in 1993, "but they did the
                         damn thing on the cheap. The backdrops had holes in them, and it was shot on the
                         worst film stock. ... As it turned out, the miracle worker was George Folsey, the
                         cinematographer. He took that junk and made it look like a Grandma Moses painting."

                         When film studios went into a slump, MGM's musical factory was disbanded. Keel kept
                         busy on the road in such surefire attractions of "Man of La Mancha," "South Pacific,"
                         "Annie Get Your Gun" and "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers."

                         Keel was in his early 60s and presumably nearing the end of his career when he
                         suddenly became a star in another medium.

                         From its start in 1978, "Dallas" with its combination of oil, greed, sex and duplicity
                         had become the hottest series in television. Jim Davis, who had played the role of
                         Jock Ewing, died in 1981, and the producers needed another strong presence to
                         stand up to the nefarious J.R. Ewing Jr. (Larry Hagman). They chose Keel.

                         "The show was enormous," Keel reflected in 1995. "I couldn't believe it. My life
                         changed again. From being out of it, I was suddenly a star, known to more people
                         than ever before. Wherever I went, crowds appeared again, and I started making
                         solo albums for the first time in my career."

                         As Clayton Farlow, husband of "Miss Ellie" Ewing (Barbara Bel Geddes), Keel
                         remained with "Dallas" until it folded in 1991.

                         When Keel was born in Gillespie, Ill., his name was Harold Clifford Leek. His father,
                         once a naval captain, became a coal miner and drank to soothe his bitterness. During
                         drunken rages, he beat his children. His mother, a strict Methodist, forbade her two
                         sons from having any entertainment.

                         "I had a terrible, rotten childhood," Keel commented in 1995. "My father made away
                         with himself when I was 11. I had no guidance, and Mom was six feet tall,
                         bucktoothed and very tough. I was mean and rebellious and had a terrible, bitter
                         temper. I got a job as an auto mechanic, and I would have stayed in that narrow kind
                         of life if I hadn't discovered art. Music changed me completely."

                         At 20 he was living in Los Angeles and he was befriended by a cultured woman who
                         took him to a Hollywood Bowl concert featuring famed baritone Lawrence Tibbett.
                         Keel was inspired, and he started taking vocal lessons at 25 cents an hour. His first
                         semiprofessional opportunity came as a singing waiter at the Paris Inn Restaurant in
                         downtown Los Angeles at $15 a week and two meals a day.

                         Six foot three and a gawky 140 pounds, Keel was painfully shy. He worked during five
                         years during World War II at Douglas Aircraft, and the experience helped his
                         confidence.

                         He sang in recitals and opera programs and was summoned to an audition with
                         Oscar Hammerstein II, who was looking for young singers to play Curly in the
                         growing number of touring "Oklahoma!" companies.

                         Hammerstein approved, and soon under a new name Howard Keel he was singing
                         "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning" in New York eight times a week. He sometimes
                         replaced John Raitt in Rodgers and Hammerstein's other hit, "Carousel" On occasion
                         he would appear in a matinee of "Oklahoma!" and an evening performance of
                         "Carousel." He played "Carousel" for eighteen months in London.

                         Rodgers and Hammerstein were notorious for underpaying their actors and denying
                         them billing. Keel rankled at being paid $250 a week for the unbilled starring role in a
                         sellout musical. As soon as his contract expired, he hurried back to Los Angeles.

                         Desperately in need of handsome, virile actors who could sing, MGM signed Keel to a
                         contract that paid $850 a week.

                         He made it big in musicals, but also appeared in westerns: Waco," "Red Tomahawk,"
                         "The War Wagon" (with John Wayne and Kirk Douglas) and "Arizona Bushwhackers."
                         After leaving MGM, he appeared as St. Peter in the unsuccessful "The Big Fisherman."

                         Keel was married and then divorced twice: to actress Rosemary Cooper and dancer
                         Helen Anderson, with whom he had three children: Kaija, Kristine, Gunnar. In 1970 he
                         married former airline stewardess Judy Magamoll. They had one daughter, Leslie.

                         He continued singing in the 1980s, explaining: "As long as I can sing halfway decent,
                         I'd rather sing (than act). There's nothing like being in good voice, feeling good,
                         having good numbers to do and having a fine orchestra."