Richard Kiley

Richard Kiley
Kiley with Peter Falk in Colombo, 1974.
Born	Richard Paul Kiley March 31, 1922(1922-03-31) Chicago, Illinois, United States
Died	March 5, 1999(1999-03-05) (aged 76) Warwick, New York, United States
Occupation	actor
Spouse	Patricia Ferrier (1968- ) Mary Bell Wood (1948-1967)

Richard Paul Kiley (March 31, 1922 – March 5, 1999) was an American stage, television, and film actor. He is best known for his voice work, as narrator of various documentary series, and for having played Don Quixote in the original 1965 production of the Broadway musical Man of La Mancha. Kiley was the first to sing and record "The Impossible Dream", the hit song from the show. In the 1953 hit musical Kismet, he played the Caliph, and introduced the song "Stranger in Paradise". He won three Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and two Tony Awards during his career.

Early life

Kiley was born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised Roman Catholic. He graduated from Mt. Carmel High School in 1940, and after a year at Loyola University Chicago he left to study acting at Chicago's Barnum Dramatic School. In the late 40s, he performed in Chicago-area summer stock theaters with actors such as Alan Furlan. Following a stint in the Navy, he returned to Chicago working as an actor and announcer on radio before moving to New York City. In New York he studied singing with Ray Smolover.

Career

His work on stage included Kismet; Richard Rodgers's first musical for which he wrote both music and lyrics, No Strings; the Buddy Hackett vehicle I Had a Ball; and the lead roles in Redhead, Man of La Mancha, and the play The Incomparable Max.

He starred in the television play, "Patterns," which aired live on January 12, 1955. It caused a sensation, and won an Emmy for its screenwriter Rod Serling.

He won Tony Awards as Best Actor in a musical for the first two. The dual role of the middle-aged Miguel de Cervantes and Don Quixote is one of the few musical roles which entails both the role of the leading man and that of a character actor at the same time, rather than the conventional handsome hero who wins the girl. Kiley had gone on record as saying that he had grown tired of the regular "leading man" role but was always grateful for having been given the chance to play it. Tony Martinez played Sancho Panza to Kiley's Don Quixote.^{[citation needed]}

Later years

Kiley won several Emmy Awards and Golden Globe Awards for his work in television, including The Thorn Birds (as Paddy, Rachel Ward's father) (1983) and A Year in the Life (1986, 1987–1988). Kiley appeared as Gideon Seyetik in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Second Sight".

In Jurassic Park, the park's impresario boasts about the tour of the park, "The voice you're now hearing is Richard Kiley. We've spared no expense." Kiley was introduced as the narrator for the tour first in the novel by Michael Crichton, and later in the film adaptation by Steven Spielberg. Visitors to Universal's Islands of Adventure theme park in Orlando, Florida, and Universal Studios in Hollywood hear Kiley as the narrator of the Jurassic Park River Adventure ride.

From 1994 until 1998, Kiley narrated the A&E documentary television series, Mysteries of the Bible.

Death

Kiley died of an unspecified bone marrow disease in Warwick, New York, on March 5, 1999, less than a month before he would have turned 77. His remains were interred in Warwick. The lights on Broadway theaters were turned off in his honor.

Filmography

• Eight Iron Men (1952)
• Pickup on South Street (1953)
• Justice (1954)
• The Phenix City Story (1955)
• Blackboard Jungle (1955)
• Rod Serling's Night Gallery (1969) TV Pilot - "The Escape Route"
• The Ceremony of Innocence (1970)
• a.k.a. Cassius Clay (narrator, 1970)
• The Little Prince (1974)
• Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977)
• Endless love
• The Thorn Birds (1983) TV Miniseries
• George Washington (1984) TV Miniseries
• The Canterville Ghost (1985)
• Howard the Duck (1986) (voice)
• A Year in the Life (1986, 1987–1988) TV
• My First Love (1988) (ABC-TV Movie)
• Absolute Strangers (1991) (CBS-TV Movie)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) (guest star, "Second Sight")
• Jurassic Park (1993) (voice)
• Phenomenon (1996)
• Mary & Tim (1996) TV movie
• The Visual Bible: Matthew (film) (1996) (the apostle Matthew/narrator)
• Tigers of the Snow (1997) (TV)
• Patch Adams (1998)
• Ally McBeal (1998) (TV - Season 1, Episode 15: Once In A Lifetime; character Seymore Little)

Sources

• Man of La Mancha - original theatrical program, for Kiley's personal comments on playing Don Quixote

External links

• Richard Kiley at the Internet Movie Database
• Richard Kiley at the Internet Broadway Database
• Richard Kiley at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Richard Kiley at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)