LOS ANGELES (AP) – 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 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 Foley, the cinematographer. He took that junk and made it look like a Grandma Moses painting.”
Oh, my! I just rewatched Seven Brides last week and watched Keel’s commentary. Even at whatever age he was when he did that, he was still a good looking man! He had such a voice.
Sad news, indeed. I’ve seen both Kiss Me Kate and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers within the last couple months. '50s musicals would have been much different without that rich voice and enormous presence.
Of course I loved all the movies, but I remember a guest appearance he did way back on The Red Skelton Show. It was a Christmas show, and Freddy the Freeloader finds a little lost girl. Her mother is a poor widow, and Keel played a cop on the beat who was always on Freddie’s case. Unmarried of course, so Freddie played matchmaker. They of course worked in an excuse for Keel to sing, and he did “Oh Come, All Ye Faithful.”
If I had lived in frontier Oregon I would have had a big cat fight with Milly over Adam Pontaby!
God rest his beautiful hide. I loved him in both Dallas and the MGM extravaganzas.
One biography says that when he moved to pre WW2 Hollywood (while still Howard Leek) he paid $.25 per hour for voice lessons. That’s incredible: today voice lessons from a good instructor would probably go for 10 times that.
Trivia: He was the father-in-law at one time of Edward James Olmos (whom he couldn’t stand at first as he thought he was a golddigger). The reason he took the role on Dallas was to provide a nest-egg and pay for the education of his youngest child (who was a generation younger than his older three children).
I had no idea he was 6’4.
Did he ever sing on Dallas? I don’t recall it if he did. (His character did fall for a much younger model in a few episodes and have to deal with the trauma of his wife turning into Donna Reed [though the same magical forces turned her back into Barbara Bel Geddes].)
I don’t know anything at all about Howard Keel’s personal life, but if he’s up in Heaven now, the baritone section of the resident choir will be that much more glorious.
Although I saw him and loved him in musicals, I never saw him in Dallas. Therefore, this weekend, when they showed clips of him as an older man, I was astounded by what a looker he still was as a white-haired senior gent. He might even surpass Cary Grant for growing even handsomer with age.
Yep, Baker, he was a hunk in Seven Brides. Seven good-looking guys in that cabin, and he was the pick of the litter, as well as the best singer of course. I’ll miss him!
I’m actually bummed than another old landmark is gone. Some people just don’t realize that it’s impossible to truly have “progress” without a sense of history.
Anyhoo, Eve e-mail me! I’ve been trying to make enquiries about the vintage outfits you need to remove (from your MPSIMS thread a few weeks ago). I know film people who may be able to store them properly or who may know who to contact about getting them in a more museum archive-like setting. (I just have to make sure the garments wouldn’t end up being abused in productions, I’m still a little :dubious: about that.)
