Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Robert Goulet 1933-2007

Robert Goulet has died at the age of 73.

He was quite the singing sensation in the early 1960’s after scoring a success playing Lancelot in the Broadway musical Camelot, and he had a very successful career afterwards as a recording artist and Las Vegas headliner. He also had a great sense of humor about his success and his image, often making fun of his matinee idol looks and romantic voice.

In the 1990s and beyond, Mr. Goulet continued to sing and act. He also took on novel assignments; in one, he provided the singing voice for Wheezy the Penguin in “Toy Story 2” (1999); in another, he played a mischievous office prankster in a commercial for Emerald Nuts, shown during this year’s Super Bowl.

He spoke widely about his recovery from prostate cancer to encourage men to be tested for the disease. But even with health problems, he could laugh at his own expense. When he had surgery on a split femur in the mid-1990s, he asked the surgeon if he would be able to dance afterward. The doctor said yes.

“That’s good,” Mr. Goulet said, “because I couldn’t dance before.”