Howard Keel

Howard Keel
from the trailer for Annie Get Your Gun (1950)
Born	Harold Clifford Keel April 13, 1919(1919-04-13) Gillespie, Illinois, U.S.
Died	November 7, 2004(2004-11-07) (aged 85) Palm Desert, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor/Singer
Years active	1948–2002
Spouse	Rosemary Cooper (1943-48) (divorced) Helen Anderson (1949-70) (divorced) Judy Keel (1970-2004) (his death)

Harold Clifford Keel (April 13, 1919 – November 7, 2004), known professionally as Howard Keel, was an American actor and singer. He starred in many film musicals of the 1950s. He is best known to modern audiences for his starring role in the CBS television series Dallas from 1981 to 1991, as Clayton Farlow, opposite Barbara Bel Geddes's character, but to an earlier generation, he was known as the star of some of the most famous MGM film musicals ever made, with a rich baritone singing voice.

Early years

Keel was born Harold Clifford Keel in Gillespie, Illinois, to Navyman-turned-coalminer Homer Keel and his wife, Grace Osterkamp Keel. (It is often erroneously stated—by the MGM publicity department of the 1950s—that Keel's birth name was Harold Leek).

Young Harold spent his childhood in poverty. One of his teachers, Miss Rosa Burke, noticed one day that he was not eating his lunch. 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.

After his father's death in 1930, Keel and his mother moved to California, where he graduated from Fallbrook High School at the age of 17. He worked various odd jobs until finally settling at Douglas Aircraft Company as a traveling representative.

Career and personal life

At the age of 20, Keel was overheard singing by his landlady, Mom Rider, and was encouraged to take vocal lessons. One of Keel's musical heroes was the great baritone Lawrence Tibbett. Howard would later remark that learning that his own voice was a basso cantante was one of the greatest disappointments of his life. Nevertheless, his first public performance occurred in the summer of 1941, when he played the role of Samuel the Prophet in Handel's oratorio Saul (singing a duet with bass-baritone George London).

In 1943, Keel met and married his first wife, actress Rosemary Cooper. In 1945, Keel briefly understudied for John Raitt in the Broadway hit Carousel before being assigned to Oklahoma!, written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. 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 1947, Oklahoma! became the first American postwar musical to travel to London, England, and Harold joined the production. On the opening night, April 30, at the Drury Lane Theatre, the capacity audience (which included the future Queen Elizabeth II) demanded fourteen encores. Keel was hailed as the next great star, becoming the toast of London's West End.

During the London run, his marriage to Rosemary ended in divorce and Keel fell in love with a young member of the show's chorus, dancer Helen Anderson. They married in January 1949 and, a year later, Harold - now called Howard - celebrated the birth of his daughter, Kaija.

While living in London, Keel made his film debut as Howard Keel at the British Lion studio in Elstree, in The Small Voice (1948), released in the US as Hideout. In the film he played an escaped convict holding a playwright and his wife hostage in their English country cottage.

Additional Broadway credits include Saratoga, No Strings, and Ambassador. He appeared at The Muny in St. Louis, MO as General Waverly in White Christmas (2000), Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady (1996); Emile de Becque in South Pacific (1992), and Adam in Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (1954).

Keel was a devout Methodist.

MGM years

From London's West End, Howard ended up at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer making his film musical debut as Frank Butler in the movie version of Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun (1950).

Howard's MGM career was to become a frustrating business. MGM never seemed to know quite how to use him and, besides his plum film roles in Show Boat (1951), Kiss Me Kate (1953), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), and Kismet (1955), he was forced into a series of unremarkable musicals and B-films. On loan at Warner Brothers, Keel played Wild Bill Hickok in Calamity Jane (1953), a highly popular Oscar-winning musical starring Doris Day in one of her most famous screen roles. The film was Warner Brothers' answer to Annie Get Your Gun, and included the smash hit song "Secret Love".

There were two more children born to Howard and Helen, daughter Kirstine in 1952, and son Gunnar in 1955. Soon after, Howard was released from his contract and returned to his first love; the stage.

1960s–1980s

As America's taste in entertainment evolved, finding jobs became more difficult for Keel. The 1960s held limited prospects 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 1970.

1970 turned out to be more fortunate for Howard. He went on a blind date with airline stewardess Judy Magamoll, who was 25 years his junior and who knew nothing about his stardom. Years later, Howard would call the relationship love at first sight, but the age difference bothered him tremendously. For Judy, however, it was not a problem and with the aid of Robert Frost's poem "What Fifty Said," she convinced him to proceed with their relationship. They were married in December 1970, 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. In 1971-72, Howard appeared briefly in the West End and Broadway productions of the musical, Ambassador, which flopped. In 1974, Howard became a father for the fourth time with the birth of his daughter, Leslie Grace. In January 1986, Keel underwent double heart bypass surgery.

The Love Boat, Dallas, and revived career

Keel continued to tour, with his wife and daughter in tow, but by 1980 had decided to make a career/life change. Howard moved his family to Oklahoma with the intention of joining an oil company. The family had barely settled down when Howard was called back to California to appear with Jane Powell on an episode of The Love Boat. While there, he was told that the producers of the television series Dallas wanted to speak with him. After several cameo appearances, Keel joined the show permanently as the dignified and hot-tempered oil baron, Clayton Farlow. His acting career became highly successful once again.

Recording career

With renewed fame, Keel commenced his first solo recording career, at age 64, as well as a successful concert career in the UK. He released an album, in 1984, With Love, which sold poorly. However, his album, And I Love You So reached #6 in the UK Albums Chart in 1984. The follow up album, Reminiscing - The Howard Keel Collection peaked at #20 in the UK chart, spending twelve weeks in that listing in 1985 and 1986.

In 1988 the album, Just for You reached #51 in the UK Albums Chart. In 1994, he and Judy moved to Palm Desert, California. The Keels were active in community charity events, and attended the annual Howard Keel Golf Classic at Mere Golf Club in Cheshire, England, which raised money for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC). Howard attended the event for many years up until the year of his death.

Death

Keel died at his home in Palm Desert on November 7, 2004, six weeks after being diagnosed with colon cancer. He is survived by Judy, his wife of thirty-four years, his four children, ten grandchildren and a great-granddaughter. He was cremated and his ashes scattered at various favorite places including Mere Golf Club, Liverpool John Lennon Airport, and in Tuscany, Italy.

Family

Keel had four children, three with second wife Helen Anderson – two daughters, Katija Liane (born January 14, 1950) and Kirstine Elizabeth (born June 21, 1952), and a son, Gunnar Louis (born June 3, 1955) – and one with his third wife Judy – a daughter, Leslie Grace (born September 1, 1974).

Filmography

Film
Year	Film	Role	Notes
1948	The Small Voice	Boke	as Harold Keel
1950	Annie Get Your Gun	Frank Butler
	Pagan Love Song	Hazard Endicott
1951	Three Guys Named Mike	Mike Jamison
	Show Boat	Gaylord Ravenal
	Across the Wide Missouri	Narrator
	Texas Carnival	Slim Shelby
	Callaway Went Thataway	Stretch Barnes/ Smoky Callaway	Alternate title: The Star Said No
1952	Desperate Search	Vince Heldon
	Lovely to Look At	Tony Naylor
	The Hoaxters	Narrator	Short Subject
1953	Fast Company	Rick Grayton
	Ride, Vaquero!	King Cameron
	Calamity Jane	Wild Bill Hickok
	Kiss Me Kate	Fred Graham / 'Petruchio'
1954	Rose Marie	Capt. Mike Malone
	Seven Brides for Seven Brothers	Adam Pontipee
	Deep in My Heart	Specialty in 'My Maryland'
1955	Jupiter's Darling	Hannibal
	Kismet	The Poet
1959	Floods of Fear	Donovan
	The Big Fisherman	Simon Peter
1961	Armored Command	Col. Devlin
1962	The Day of the Triffids	Bill Masen
1966	Waco	'Waco'
1967	Red Tomahawk	Capt. Tom York
	The War Wagon	Levi Walking Bear
1968	Arizona Bushwhackers	Lee Travis
1994	That's Entertainment! III	Himself
2002	My Father's House	Roy Mardis
Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1957	Zane Grey Theater	Will Gorman	1 episode - Gift from a Gunman
1957	The Polly Bergen Show	Himself	1 episode - December 7, 1957
1958	Roberta	John Kent	TV Movie
1961	Tales of Wells Fargo	Justin Brox	1 episode - Casket 7.3
1963	Death Valley Days	Diamond Jim Brady	1 episode - Diamond Jim Brady
1964	Kiss Me Kate	Fred Graham	TV Movie
1965	Run for Your Life	Hardie Rankin	1 episode - The Time of the Sharks
1967	The Red Skelton Show	Police Officer McGoogle	1 episode - A Christmas Urchin
1969	Here's Lucy		1 episode - Lucy's Safari
	Insight		1 episode - Is the 11:59 Late This Year?
1976	The Quest	Shanghai Pierce	1 episode - Seventy-Two Hours
1981–1983	The Love Boat	Duncan Harlow	2 episodes Long Time No See/The Bear Essence/Kisses and Makeup Maid for Each Other/Lost and Found/Then There Were Two
1981–1991	Dallas	Clayton Farlow	234 episodes
1982	Fantasy Island	Guest Star	1 episode - The Big Bet/Nancy and the Thunderbirds
1984	Entertainment Express		1 episode - Episode #2.2
1991	Good Sports	Sonny Gordon	1 episode - The Return of Nick
	Murder, She Wrote	Larry Thorson	1 episode - A Killing in Vegas
1994	Hart to Hart: Home Is Where the Hart Is	Capt. Quentin "Jack" Jackson	TV Movie
1995	Walker Texas Ranger	Daniel Lamont	1 episode - Blue Movies

External links

• Howard Keel at the Internet Movie Database
• Howard Keel at the Internet Broadway Database
• Howard Keel at AllRovi
• Photographs and literature on Howard Keel