Howard Keel

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Howard Keel (born April 13, 1919 in Gillespie , Illinois as Harold Clifford Keel , † November 7, 2004 in Palm Desert , California ) was an American actor and singer .

life and career

Howard Keel's father, a miner, died early and was raised by his single mother in California. As a young adult, he first worked as a travel agent for the Douglas Aircraft Company , where he entertained the other employees with singing. He eventually followed his long-cherished dream of a singing career and began his career in Broadway musicals in the 1940s . He made his film debut in 1948 with a villain role in the British film The Small Voice , which he played with the musical Oklahoma! shot in London.

Keel became known to a wide US audience as a musical performer in the early 1950s. He sang the baritone voice in movie musicals such as Mississippi Melody , A Bride for Seven Brothers and Kiss Me Kate . He had well-known US actresses and singers as film partners such as Betty Hutton , Esther Williams , Kathryn Grayson , Jane Powell and Doris Day . After a successful series of films, the offers decreased towards the end of the 1950s, also as the genre of the film musical became generally less popular. He then took on television roles and played in a few westerns in the 1960s, such as Waco (1966) and Red Tomahawk (1967). In The Powerful , he had a supporting role as an Indian on the side of John Wayne and Kirk Douglas .

In the 1970s, Keel was almost no longer in front of the camera, instead touring musical pieces and performing as a nightclub singer in Las Vegas . He became known to German-speaking audiences in particular through the television series Dallas . In it he played between 1981 and 1991 in the role of Clayton Farlow, the future husband of Ellie Ewing . This role meant a comeback for Keel, who also appeared as a guest actor in other television series such as Love Boat and Murder is Her Hobby . His comeback extended to the record market for the first time: In 1984, the studio album And I Love You So was released in Europe , which was a great success in Great Britain and reached number six in the charts. Keel also made it into the charts in Germany and the Netherlands. In the USA and Canada the work was published under the title With Love: For Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow with a different title order. The albums Reminiscing - The Howard Keel Collection (1985) and Just for You (1988) were not quite as successful, but also hit the UK charts. He also toured the UK regularly. In 1989 the live album Live in Concert was created for the BBC .

In addition to his acting and singing career, he served as president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1958 to 1959 .

Keel died of colon cancer at the age of 85 . He was the father of four children and married three times, most recently from 1970 until his death with the stewardess Judy Magamoll. One of Keel's grandchildren is the actor Bodie Olmos .

Awards

For his services to the American musical, he was honored in 2000 with the highest prize of the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (Lifetime Achievement Award For Musical Cinema Achievements). He had already received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 .

Filmography (selection)

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
And I Love You So
  DE 42 12/10/1984 (4 weeks)
  UK 6th 04/14/1984 (19 weeks)
Reminiscing - The Collection
  UK 20th 11/09/1985 (12 weeks)
Just for you
  UK 51 March 26, 1988 (5 weeks)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Howard Keel | Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos | AllMovie. Retrieved July 18, 2018 .
  2. Howard Keel, Charts , officialcharts.com/
  3. https://hitparade.ch/album/Howard-Keel/And-I-Love-You-So-33166
  4. Obituary: Howard Keel , http://news.bbc.co.uk/
  5. ^ Sheila Whitaker: Obituary: Howard Keel. November 9, 2004, accessed June 28, 2018 .
  6. Chart sources: DE UK