LOS ANGELES — Robert Goulet, the strikingly handsome singer with the rich baritone who soared to stardom on the Broadway stage in 1960 playing Lancelot in the original production of “Camelot,” died Tuesday morning. He was 73.
Goulet had recently been diagnosed with interstitial pulmonary fibrosis and was awaiting a lung transplant when he died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, according to Norm Johnson, a spokesman for the singer.
“Robert Goulet was a monumental presence on the stage and had one of the great voices of all time, which often overshadowed his many other talents,” pianist Roger Williams said in a statement Tuesday. “He really could do it all – act, dance and was as funny as hell, especially when he was making fun of himself. Robert always took his craft seriously but never took himself seriously. Oh, how we will miss this great guy.”
The Massachusetts-born Goulet, who moved to Canada as a teenager, was a popular singer on Canadian television when he auditioned for the role of the brave young knight in Lerner and Loewe’s “Camelot,” opposite Julie Andrews’ Guenevere and Richard Burton’s Arthur.
In a review of the long-running hit musical, a Variety critic wrote that the 27-year-old Goulet “has the looks and the speaking and singing voice of the ideal Lancelot.”
Indeed, with his dark hair, blue eyes and magnificent baritone, Goulet was the personification of a Kennedy-era leading man. Judy Garland called him a living 8-by-10 glossy, and Truman Capote called him the “poinsettia of botany.”
Added to the matinee-idol looks was that distinctive singing voice, which Goulet’s father considered a gift from God.
Upon hearing Goulet sing “If Ever I Would Leave You,” during the first day of rehearsals for “Camelot,” Burton called it “the voice of an angel.”
Goulet, who won a Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1962, went on to win a Tony Award as best actor in a musical for his portrayal of Jacques Bonnard in Kander and Ebb’s “The Happy Time” in 1968.
During his 1960s and early ’70s heyday, Goulet turned out a string of hit albums, appeared frequently on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and other popular TV variety shows, and starred in his own TV specials, as well as TV productions of “Brigadoon,” “Carousel” and “Kiss Me, Kate.”
Goulet segued into movies in 1962 when he and Garland provided the lead feline vocal characterizations for the animated film “Gay Purr-ee.” He went on to star in several films, including the 1964 comedies “Honeymoon Hotel” (with Nancy Kwan) and “I’d Rather Be Rich” (with Sandra Dee). He also guest-starred on TV series such as “The Bell Telephone Hour” and “The Patty Duke Show” and starred in his own short-lived spy drama series, “Blue Light,” in 1966.
During the height of his popularity, Goulet also sang at the White House for Presidents Johnson and Nixon and headlined in Las Vegas. He even earned a footnote in the saga of Elvis Presley: Goulet was performing on television when Elvis famously blasted his TV screen with a handgun.
In his later years, the entertainment idol became something of a camp icon, whose old-school show-biz image made him ripe for satire on TV shows such as “Saturday Night Live” and “The Simpsons.”
Goulet didn’t object and, in fact, periodically spoofed his Las Vegas persona, including appearing as himself in a series of wacky commercials in the ’90s to promote ESPN’s college basketball schedule and, more recently, a goofy commercial spot for Emerald Nuts.
“If you can’t laugh at yourself, you’re a fool,” Goulet told the Orange County Register in 1996. “I don’t like those who pat themselves on the back. My job is to entertain, not to go out there and be myself.”
