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Goulet's Dulcet Tones Silenced
Posted: Oct 31, 2007 in Culture, TV and Celebrities
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I had always credited Robert Goulet with teaching me how to sing. Oh, I have had more voice teachers than you can shake a stick at, several listed in my profile. They came armed with techniques and tricks, modes and methods. But, none of them really taught me HOW to sing. Not like listening to my grandmother's or mom's Goulet 33s (those are the big round black things that you used to play on both sides and music came out). The CAMELOT original cast, WONDERFUL WORLD OF CHRISTMAS, and the show for which he won the Tony Award THE HAPPY TIME were the tools that taught me how to produce a rich, well-placed baritone sound (frequently under my Grandmother's cherry dinning room table laying on my back.)
Tragically, the world was robbed of these silken tones on Tuesday morning at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles while awaiting a lung transplant. In mid-August after rotator cuff surgery, the shortness of breath he had been experiencing for some months worsened. After returning from his last concert appearance in Syracuse, New York on September 20, he felt weak with increased shortness of breath. He was then rushed to a Las Vegas hospital on September 30, and there was diagnosed with Interstitial Pulmonary Fibrosis, a rare, rapidly progressive and fatal condition. After spending 12 days in Vegas hospital it was realized that without a lung transplant there was no chance of survival. Thus the emergency transfer to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center as lung transplants are not performed in Las Vegas. Goulet was transported on Saturday, October 13; his life dependent on finding a donated lung.
Robert Goulet was a Tony, Emmy and Grammy winner. He most recently appeared on Broadway in the revival La Cage Aux Folles in which he was a replacement in order to "save" the new production when his predecessor was less than satisfactory. He came in and in true Goulet fashion stole the show with his gorgeous voice and gracious temper. I had friends working on the show and had nothing but praise for him. Best know perhaps for originating the role of Lancelot in CAMELOT with Julie Andrew and Richard Burton in 1960, his best show recording in my opinion 1968's THE HAPPY TIME. In it he gets to use a French Canadian dialect (the region where his parents were from and where he spent much of his youth) and for it he won the Tony.
He is survived by his wife of 25 years and manager, Vera, and his son Michael and Christopher. He was 73.
I kind of expected the worst when I heard he was in the hospital waiting for a lung transplant. I don't think I expected it this soon, though. Very sad.
He kept a positive outlook to the end. While being intubated he told the docs, "Just watch the vocal chords." As a singer I can relate one of my actual vocal teachers in collage had a bypass and they nicked his chords. He never sang the same again.
He truly did reach the stage of Icon with the help of Will Ferrel in recent years. And his recent appearances on the nut commercials and the new Mr. G. candy bar have allowed a whole new generation to get to know GOU-let.
It was my good fortune to interview Mr. Goulet briefly by phone during the 1990s "Camelot" revival. By then, he was playing King Arthur. I remember him being a gentleman.