Howard Keel would be 92. He was the perfect Hollywood musical leading man: Tall, handsome, suave...and equipped with a magnificent, natural baritone voice. His singing style was just right for the era...not too-operatic to scare away audiences, afraid of "long-hair" music (funny how that term means--or used to mean--"old-fashioned" or "stuffy"...probably means something different now, huh?). He was MGM's "go-to" baritone when it came to casting the big male leads in some of the classic musicals of the day, such as Annie Get Your Gun and Showboat, opposite Kathryn Grayson. In his 2005 autobiography, he confessed that he and the prim Miss Grayson were carrying on hot-'n-heavy when the cameras stopped rolling. You can order his book through Amazon for about 7 bucks (link below):
Keel actually got his start on Broadway in the original production of Oklahoma in 1947, where he was spotted by MGM talent scouts...here he is, singing a pretty swell medley from that great score:
Butch Cassidy would be 145. Well, he didn't look like Paul Newman...but the dapper bank and train robber has gone down in history as one of America's most legendary crime figures. Born Robert LeRoy Parker, he and his sidekick, Harry "The Sundance Kid" Longabaugh (above, with common-law wife, Etta Place) led their gang, The Wild Bunch, on the longest string of bank and train robberies in U.S. history. Their story was much fictionalized in the 1969 film, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Don Adams would be 88. The American comedian/actor created one of television's most indelible characters in the 1960's, "Maxwell Smart," on Get Smart. His brittle, nasal, staccato delivery was instantly recognizable--and much imitated at the time.
lol funny pic
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