The Desert Sun Palm Springs, Riverside County, CA November 08, 2004 Musical idol, TV star Howard Keel, dies By Bruce Fessier The Desert Sun November 8th, 2004 PALM DESERT -- Howard Keel, the handsome, big-voiced baritone who became a TV star in "Dallas," was remembered by friends as the last great movie musical leading man. He died Sunday at his home at The Lakes in Palm Desert after a bout with colon cancer. He was 85. Keels starred in such legendary MGM musicals as "Show Boat," "Kiss Me Kate" and "Kismet." He received a spontaneous ovation during a recent Palm Springs International Film Festival program by Michael Feinstein on the history of movies when he rode on screen with Betty Hutton in his first musical, "Annie Get Your Gun." "He was the epitome of the robust, musical leading man," said singer and actor Jack Jones, whose father, Allan Jones, played Keel's part in an earlier MGM production of "Show Boat." "In those days of matinee idols, he was it. Whether it was movies or stage, he had the perfect physique and the perfect baritone voice. He was just a hero. And a good actor. I think he was a better actor as he went along." Keel, an avid golfer, was a popular figure around the Coachella Valley, appearing in "The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies" and concerts and stage shows at the McCallum Theatre, and numerous charity events around the valley. He appeared with local students in the College of the Desert production of "Shenandoah," at the McCallum. Pianist Bill Marx recalled booking him for a World War II Memorial concert at the old Spotlight 29 Casino in Coachella and giving him the top salary of all the performers on the bill. But he said, "Howard took the entire check and donated it to Angel View (Crippled Children's Foundation). He was a good man." But Marx, whose father, Harpo, also was an MGM star, said he ranked with Mario Lanza and Gordon McRae as the premier film musical leading men of the early 1950s, and he considered him MGM's greatest musical leading man. "He was the last great MGM male musical star," said Marx. "Mario was only in one or two movies of any note that I can remember. Howard just had a long list of stuff. Howard had sustaining power." Keel went on to have a strong stage musical career, becoming especially popular in "Oklahoma!" But, in the 1950s, he often took over film roles created by "Oklahoma!" star Alfred Drake on Broadway. "It is my feeling that Howard Keel is the reason Alfred Drake didn't do the movie versions," said Marx. "Howard had some sort of marvelous appeal that worked in the movies. I think he had a much more vivacious quality that was better for the screen than Drake." Choral director Johnny Mann, a close friend and golfing buddy of Keel's since the 1980s in Los Angeles, said he admired Keel's vocal skills on screen and in concert. "His vocal skills were fantastic," he said. "He was born with that voice. It's a legitimate baritone, but it was flexible enough to do other things. As a professional musician, he was such a stickler for singing in tune. Whether it was high or low -- I don't care what it was -- I don't think he was capable of singing a note out of tune." Keel said his favorite of his movies was "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers," which co-starred Palm Springs resident Ruta Lee. Lee wasn't available for comment Sunday, but Keel said in an earlier interview, "It was a fine cast and lots of fun to make, but they did the damn thing on the cheap. The backdrops had holes in them, and it was shot on the worst film stock. The miracle worker was George Foley, the cinematographer. He took that junk and made it look like a Grandma Moses painting." Keel became a television star in "Dallas" at age 66 in 1981, three years after its debut, when Jim Davis died and the show needed an actor to play another elder Ewing to stand up to the notorious J.R., played by Larry Hagman. "My life changed again," he said. "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." Keel was born April 13, 1917, in Gillespie, Ill., as Harold Clifford Leek. At 20 he was living in Los Angeles, and was befriended by a cultured woman who took him to a Hollywood Bowl concert featuring famed baritone Lawrence Tibbett. Keel was inspired, and started taking vocal lessons at 25 cents an hour. His first semi-professional 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 worked during five wartime years at Douglas Aircraft, and the experience helped his confidence. So did singing lessons with some of Los Angeles' best vocal coaches. 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 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 known for underpaying their actors and denying them billing. Keel rankled at being paid $250 a week for the unbilled starring role in a sell-out musical. As soon as his contract expired, he hurried back to Los Angeles. Desperately in need of handsome actors who could sing, MGM signed Keel to a contract that paid $850 a week. His first assignment: "Annie Get Your Gun." He made occasional non-singing films, such as "Three Guys Named Mike" and "Desperate Search," but he said MGM's reluctance to use him in dramatic roles hurt his career when the classic musicals lost favor with the advent of rock-n-roll. Keel was married three times and divorced twice: first to actress Rosemary Cooper (1943-1948) of Palm Desert, then to dancer Helen Anderson (1950-1970). They had three children: Kaija, Kristina, and Gunnar of Los Angeles. In 1970 he married former airline stewardess Judy Magamoll. They had one daughter, Leslie. He is also survived by 10 grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. The funeral will be private, Gunnar said, with a memorial service to follow. No decision has been made, Gunnar said, as to whether the memorial service will be held in the Coachella Valley. San Jose (CA) Mercury News, Monday, November 8, 2004 p. 3A Excerpts Howard Keel, born Harold Clifford Leek in Gillespie, Illinois. No birth date given. Age 85. "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." "Keel died Sunday morning of colon cancer at his home in Palm Desert [CA], according to his son, Gunnar." The Herald Democrat; Sherman TX; 2004-11-8 Keel, musical star who revived career with 'Dallas,' dead at 85. Los Angeles -- Howard Keel, the broadshouldered 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, according to his son, Gunnar. Keel starred in Rogers and Hammerstein musicals in New York and London before being signed to 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 ("Showboat," "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 jump 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 66 and presumably nearing the end of his career when he became a star in another medium. From its start in 1978, "Dallas" with its combination of oil, greed, sex and duplicity had become the hotest 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. Howard Keel Singer with a winning smile who stood up to JR Sheila Whitaker Tuesday November 9, 2004 The Guardian London, England Howard Keel, who has died of cancer aged 85, was a gutsy baritone with a cheerful swagger and a wonderful smile who gave larger than life performances in film musicals such as Annie Get Your Gun (1950), Show Boat (1951) and Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (1954). He had shoulders that any woman would want to swoon on, and Hedda Hopper, the notorious gossip columnist, described him as a "big hunk of masculinity". Forceful and energetic, Keel's performances and songs were imbued with a vibrant joie de vivre and bravado, but also a gentleness that never allowed them to collapse into braggadocio. The tragedy of his career was that he was never able to really show what he could do as a straight actor: the success of it is that, despite this, his place in the history books is assured, added to which anyone who sees any of his musicals will never forget him. Yet in 1981, he regained his star status, albeit of the television variety, when he joined the TV series Dallas as Clayton Farlow, husband of Miss Ellie, the mother of JR Ewing. It was a role he retained until the show closed in 1991. He is reported as admitting that he did this for the money, but the success of the series was matched by his performances, as he won back Miss Ellie and angered JR. He was born Harold Clifford Leek in Gillespie, Illinois. His father, a sometime naval captain, had become a coal miner and an alcoholic, and his mother was a devout Methodist, who disapproved of entertainment. After the death of his father, when Keel was 11, the family moved to Fallbrook, California. It was, he recalled, a terrible childhood and he grew up mean, rebellious, and with a terrible temper. On leaving school, where he was a creditable baseball player, he worked as a motor mechanic. Then, as a 20-year-old living in Los Angeles, he went with an older woman to hear baritone Lawrence Tibbett at the Hollywood Bowl. A new world opened up: he took singing lessons, entered singing competitions - in 1938 winning a George Walker scholarship - and worked in evening shows at the Pasadena Auditorium and elsewhere. He had a stint as a singing busboy at the Paris Inn restaurant in Los Angeles for $15 a week and two meals a day. With the second world war, Keel found work with Douglas Aviation and North American Aircraft as a mechanic. He also participated in Douglas factory entertainment and was sent on the road to entertain employees of customers and suppliers. It was while giving recitals that he was auditioned by Oscar Hammerstein II to play Curly in a touring production of Oklahoma!. He got the job, and was then hired to replace John Raitt in the role of Billy Bigelow in Carousel, where he was credited as Harold Keel (Leek spelt backwards). He then played Curly for the opening of the London production of Oklahoma! in 1948. It was in London that he made his film debut in the British thriller The Small Voice (1948), opposite Valerie Hobson. In 1949, he secured a contract with MGM, who changed his name to Howard. He made his very successful American screen debut as Frank Butler in Annie Get Your Gun, with Betty Hutton as Annie Oakley. Pagan Love Song (1950) with Esther Williams and Three Guys Named Mike (1951) were followed by Show Boat and Lovely To Look At (1952), both opposite Kathryn Grayson. After some rather less memorable films, in 1953 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 1954, 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 1955. 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. His straight roles included performances in the British movie The Day Of The Triffids (1962) and The War Wagon (1967) with John Wayne and Kirk Douglas He continued successfully in the theatre, including appearances in Saratoga, No Strings, Camelot, The Most Happy Fella, Man Of La Mancha, Plaza Suite and On A Clear Day You Can See Forever. He also spent much of the 1960s 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 also appeared in a BBC TV special of Kiss Me Kate in 1963 and on other British TV programmes. In 1971 he played at the Talk Of The Town in London, and followed this with a role opposite Danielle Darrieux in Ambassador, the somewhat disastrous musical of Henry James's The Ambassadors at Her Majesty's Theatre and on Broadway. He then returned to London to sing at the Palladium in 1974. Then, in 1981 came Dallas, which, he recalled, changed his life 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." The first of these was And I Love You So in 1984, the same year that he appeared at the Royal Variety Performance. He toured Britain in Oklahoma! in 1993. Keel ensured that his private life remained largely private . He did admit to heavy drinking at the time of his break-up with his second wife, and to being an avid golfer. He was married first to actor Rosemary Cooper, from 1943 until their divorce in 1948; secondly, to former dancer Helen Anderson Randall (1949-70); and from 1970 to Judy Magamoll, a former airlines steward. She survives him, as do three children from his second marriage, a daughter from his last marriage, 10 grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. · Howard Keel (Harold Clifford Leek), singer and actor, born April 13 1917; died November 7 2004