When was howard keel born

From that day forward, Miss Burke would pack two lunches — one for herself and one for Harold. When he became famous and would perform near Gillespie, Burke always received tickets to attend his performances. He worked various odd jobs until settling at Douglas Aircraft Company as a traveling representative. At the age of 20, Howard Keel was overheard singing by his landlady, Mom Rider, and was encouraged to take vocal lessons.

One of his musical heroes was the great baritone Lawrence Tibbett. Keel later remarked that learning that his own voice was a basso cantante was one of the greatest disappointments of his life. In , Howard Keel met and married his first wife, actress Rosemary Cooper. In , he briefly understudied for John Raitt in the Broadway hit Carousel before being assigned to Oklahoma! When performing this play during this period, Keel accomplished a feat that has never been duplicated; he performed the leads in both shows on the same day.

In , Oklahoma! On the opening night, April 30, at the Drury Lane Theatre, the capacity audience which included the future Queen Elizabeth II demanded fourteen encores.

They married in January and, a year later, Harold — now called Howard — celebrated the birth of his daughter, Kaija. He played an escaped convict holding a playwright and his wife hostage in their English country cottage. He appeared at The Muny in St. Keel was a devout Methodist.

Show all 6 episodes. Self - Guest. Show all 10 episodes. Self - Music Performer. Self - Guest Artist. Self - Co-Host.

Show all 13 episodes. Self - Singer. Self - Host. Show all 7 episodes. Self - Team Captain. Self - Panellist. Self - cast of Kismet. Hide Show Archive footage 23 credits. Wild Bill Hickok uncredited. Self uncredited. Clayton Farlow uncredited. Documentary Archival footage from 'Kiss Me Kate'.

Stanley Livingston uncredited. Related Videos. John Kenley was artistic director. See more ». In , he secured a contract with MGM, who changed his name to Howard. After some rather less memorable films, in he won acclaim in Calamity Jane, despite not being on screen that much, as a rivetingly athletic Wild Bill Hickok, the guy who tames Doris Day. The same year, in Kiss Me Kate, he gave a fine central performance with a nicely ironic rendering of Shakespearian acting, and was again opposite Grayson.

In , came his own favourite film Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, which had, he observed, a fine cast, was fun to make, but was shot on terrible film stock - "they did the whole damn thing on the cheap". For Keel the key ingredient was cinematographer George Folsey, who took the stock and made the musical look, according to Keel, like a Grandma Moses painting. Keel's last film musicals were Jupiter's Darling and Kismet, both in Despite describing himself as "a dramatic actor who sings", Keel had made such an impression in musical roles that he could never be viewed as being able to play anything else.

He also spent much of the s on the nightclub circuit, often appearing with Kathryn Grayson, appealing mainly to middle-aged women, in between some more B-movies and various TV series. He then returned to London to sing at the Palladium in MGM never seemed to know quite how to use him and, besides his plum film roles in Show Boat , Kiss Me Kate , Seven Brides for Seven Brothers , and Kismet , he was forced into a series of unremarkable musicals and B-films.

There were two more children born to Howard and Helen, daughter Kirstine in and son Gunnar in Soon after, Howard was released from his contract and returned to his first love: the stage. The s held limited prospect for career advancement, and consisted primarily of nightclub work, B-Westerns and summer stock. Due to his declining career, Keel began to drink heavily, and his marriage to Helen crumbled.

They divorced in He went on a blind date with airline stewardess Judy Magamoll, who was 25 years his junior and had never even heard of him. Years later, Howard would call the relationship love at first sight, but the age difference bothered him tremendously.

They were married in December and his drinking problem soon ceased thereafter. He resumed his routine of nightclub, cabaret and summer stock jobs with his new wife at his side, and, in , appeared briefly in the West End and Broadway productions of the musical, Ambassador , which flopped.

Howard Keel continued to tour, his wife and daughter in tow, but by he had endured enough career struggle; he moved his family to Oklahoma, intending to join an oil company. While there, he was told that the producers of the smash hit television series Dallas wanted to confer with him.

After several cameo appearances, Keel joined the show permanently as the dignified if hot-tempered oil baron Clayton Farlow, and his acting career was highly successful once again.