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Job Actor/Singer
Years active 1943-2002
Known for Rich baritone voice and swaggering confidence
Top Roles Mike Jamison, Adam Pontipee, King Cameron, Hajj, Fred Graham 'Petruchio'
Top Genres Comedy, Musical, Romance, Western, Adventure, Drama
Top Topics Book-Based, Based on Play, True Story (based on), Wild West, Frontier
Top Collaborators Ann Miller, Esther Williams, Kathryn Grayson, Keenan Wynn, Clark Gable, Gene Kelly, Arthur Freed (Producer), Jane Powell
Also Born on April 13
Also Born in 1919
Also Born in Illinois
Also an Aries

Howard Keel Overview:

Legendary actor, Howard Keel, was born Harold Clifford Keel on Apr 13, 1919 in Gillespie, IL. Keel died at the age of 85 on Nov 7, 2004 in Palm Desert, CA and was cremated and his ashes scattered at favorite places including Mere Golf Club, Eng.

MINI BIO:

With a rich baritone voice and a swaggering confidence, Howard Keel starred in many of MGM's big-budget musicals of the 1950s including Annie Get Your Gun (1950), Show Boat (1951), Lovely to Look At (1952), Kiss Me Kate (1953), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), and Kismet (1955). Later, Keel would appear in some medium-budget action films, as well as the cult sci-fi classic, Day of the Triffids (1963). From 1981 to 1991, Keel played the role of oil baron Clayton Farlow in the prime time TV soap Dallas.

(Source: article by Annmarie Gatti for Classic Movie Hub).

HONORS and AWARDS:

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He was honored with one star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the category of Motion Pictures. Keel was never nominated for an Academy Award.

Howard Keel BlogHub Articles:

Check it Out! - Sally Ann Howes and Howard Keel on "The Bell Telephone Hour" ( 1960 )

Check out this wonderful clip from a rare color episode of The Bell Telephone Hour ( 1960 ) featuring Sally Ann Howes and Howard Keel singing "Tonight" from the Broadway musical West Side Story. Two beautiful actors with beautiful voices.... Read full article


Jane Powell and Howard Keel (But No Seven Brothers)

Jane Powell and Vic Damone. Big, splashy Broadway-style musicals had peaked in popularity when MGM released Hit the Deck in 1955. So, kudos to the studio for putting together an incredibly talented cast headlined by Jane Powell, Debbie Reynolds, and Ann Miller. Their male co-stars, though not as we... Read full article


Jane Powell and Howard Keel (But No Seven Brothers)

Jane Powell and Vic Damone. Big, splashy Broadway-style musicals had peaked in popularity when MGM released Hit the Deck in 1955. So, kudos to the studio for putting together an incredibly talented cast headlined by Jane Powell, Debbie Reynolds, and Ann Miller. Their male co-stars, though not as we... Read full article


Howard Keel starred in some of the most famous musicals ever made

Howard Keel was an American actor and singer who starred in some of the most famous MGM film musicals ever made. Keel is probably best remembered by modern audiences for his starring role in the CBS television series “Dallas” from 1981 to 1991, as Clayton Farlow, opposite Barbara Bel Ge... Read full article


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Howard Keel Quotes:

[Bill is dressed as an Indian woman with a baby]
Calamity Jane: Gosh almighty, it's Bill Hickok!
[proceeds to laugh along with everyone else]
Wild Bill Hickok: [hands baby over] Here take him.
[stands up]
Wild Bill Hickok: The next man that laughs is gonna get his head ventilated.
[silence and Bill sits down. Calamity laughs again after a few moments]
— From: Calamity Jane

Narrator: My dad wasn't just one man named Flint Mitchell. He was a breed of men... mountain men who lived and died in America. He used to tell me about these men he knew. Men who walked the Indian trails and blazed new ones where no man had ever been before. Men who found lakes and rivers and meadows. Men who found paths to the west and the western sea; who roamed prairies and mountains and plateaus that are now states. Men who searched for beaver and found glory. Men who died unnamed and found immortality. My father always began his story by telling me about the summer rendezvous of the mountain men. This is where they met every July after a year of trapping in the Rockies. Here they cashed in their furs, caught up on their drinking and the fighting and the gambling and the fun... and the girls. They lived hard and they played hard.

Lilli Vanessi: Do you really think *I* could play the shrew?
Fred Graham: You'd make a perfect shrew!
— From: Kiss Me, Kate

Narrator: Trees lie where they fall, and men were buried where they died.

Adam: You're beating your head against a stone wall, Milly. You'll never make jackadandies out of them!
See more quotes from Howard Keel...
Howard Keel Facts
After his father's death, he and his mother moved to San Diego, California, in 1930.

From 1971-1992 he was the father-in-law of actor Edward James Olmos through Olmos' marriage to Keel's daughter Kaija Keel.

Due to his huge size, many of his petite leading ladies had to stand on boxes to be in the same frame.


Originally scheduled to portray Franklin D. Roosevelt in "Sunrise at Campobello," a case of pneumonia forced him to abandon the role before it got to Broadway. Ralph Bellamy replaced him and won numerous awards, including the Tony. Keel played the role eventually on tour.

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