Howard Keel

Howard Keel gained instant stardom as Betty Hutton's singing cowboy love interest in "Annie Get Your Gun" (1950) and subsequently enjoyed half a decade of musical stardom, mostly at MGM, breaking in feisty female fillies in a number of lavish and tuneful comedy-dramas. Tall, rugged and barrel-chested, with a zestful confidence ideal for cheerful braggadocio and a stirring baritone voice to go with it, Keel appeared in a host of other musicals through 1955. Especially notable was "Kiss Me Kate" (1953), the best of his several vehicles opposite soprano Kathryn Grayson, whom at one point Keel was called upon to spank. An even better film was "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" (1954), in which Keel tamed Jane Powell. His good-humored robustness also aided him in similar chastising duties opposite tomboyish Doris Day while on loan to Warner Brothers for "Calamity Jane" (1953).

When traditional song-and-dance musicals were no longer produced regularly by the studio system, Keel's film career declined somewhat in status and in the volume of his output. He had, however, played in several nonmusical adventure films during his peak, and, after a shot at St. Peter in Frank Borzage's "The Big Fisherman" (1959), moved into action leads for the next decade. His most memorable effort in this phase of his career was the science-fiction flick, "Day of the Triffids" (1962) but he also starred in a handful of minor Westerns including "Waco" (1966) and "Red Tomahawk" (1967). He later performed live, singing in nightclubs, on the Broadway and London stages (in "Ambassador"), and on tour in many musical shows. In 1981, Keel, mustachioed and attractively silver-haired, returned to a wide popular audience for over a decade when he began playing Clayton Farlow, second husband to Miss Ellie (Barbara Bel Geddes) on the popular CBS primetime soap "Dallas".