In the 1950s and 1960s, Robert Goulet, virtually captivated audiences in USA, Canada and European countries with his hypnotizing voice and powerful screen presence. His music and acting was renowned across the English speaking world.
The singer passed away on Tuesday morning in a Los Angeles hospital while awaiting a lung transplant. The handsome, big-voiced baritone whose Broadway debut in Camelot, launched an award-winning stage and recording career was 73.
Goulet was awaiting a lung transplant at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, after being diagnosed of pulmonary fibrosis last month. Though suffering excruciating pain, Goulet remained in good spirits even as he waited for the transplant.
According to his wife Vera, Goulet was cheerful as ever. He even joked with the doctors as they inserted a respiratory tube into his neck.
He said to the doctors,
Just watch my vocal cords.
Born in Massachusetts, Goulet spent much of his youth in Canada and catapulted fame in 1960 with Camelot, the Lerner and Loewe musical that starred Richard Burton as King Arthur and Julie Andrews as his Queen Guenevere. Goulet played the character of Sir Lancelot, an arrogant French knight who falls in love with Guenevere.
Later in the 1950s he moved to America and became a hit with TV viewers with appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and other programs. Sullivan labeled him the American baritone from Canada. Goulet was already a popular star in the 1950s, hosting his own show called General Electric’s Showtime.
Today his demise has left a void in the world of music in the American continent.
