Biography
This page uses content from the John Raitt biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.
John Emmett Raitt (born on 19 January, 1917 in Santa Ana, California, died 20 February, 2005, Pacific Palisades, California) was a star of the musical theater stage.
He is best known for his stage roles in the classic musicals Carousel, Oklahoma! and The Pajama Game, in which he set the standard for virile, handsome, strong-voiced leading men during the golden age of the Broadway musical. His only leading film role was in the 1957 movie version of The Pajama Game, opposite Doris Day.
On television, he was seen many times on the Bell Telephone Hour. A clip of a television performance of Raitt singing the final section of the song "Soliloquy" from Carousel is included in the documentary film Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There. In 1957, also for television, he and Mary Martin re-created their starring roles in the national touring version of Annie Get Your Gun.
In 1945, John Raitt was one of the recipients of the first Theatre World Award for his debut performance in Carousel. In 1965, he starred in the twentieth-anniversary production of the show, at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
He died on February 20, 2005, at his home in Pacific Palisades, California, from complications due to pneumonia, aged 88. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Live Theatre.
He was the father of singer Bonnie Raitt, and former father-in-law of Michael O'Keefe. He was the Grandfather of Bay Raitt, the creator of Gollum's face for the The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
External link
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify the biographical information on this page under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.
IGN RSS Feeds