Robert Goulet, Dead at 73

A great baritone is silenced:

LOS ANGELES — Robert Goulet, the handsome, big-voiced baritone whose Broadway debut in "Camelot" launched an award-winning stage and recording career, has died. He was 73.

The singer died Tuesday morning in a Los Angeles hospital while awaiting a lung transplant, said Goulet spokesman Norm Johnson.

He had been awaiting a lung transplant at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after being found last month to have a rare form of pulmonary fibrosis.

Goulet had remained in good spirits even as he waited for the transplant, said Vera Goulet, his wife of 25 years.

"Just watch my vocal cords," she said he told doctors before they inserted a breathing tube.

The Massachusetts-born Goulet, who spent much of his youth in Canada, gained stardom 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 Sir Lancelot, the arrogant French knight who falls in love with Guenevere.

He became a hit with American TV viewers with appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and other programs. Sullivan labeled him the "American baritone from Canada," where he had already been a popular star in the 1950s, hosting his own show called "General Electric's Showtime."

My path actually crossed with Goulet's twice. Back in my banking days my company decided to sponsor a night of "Camelot" at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Goulet was too old by then to play Lancelot and instead starred in the role of King Arthur. Following the show we hosted a cast party for our good customers at a nearby restaurant and Goulet was there along with the other cast members.

A few years later I was in Sacramento for a quartet convention and was walking through the Sheraton hotel lobby late one night and there was Goulet again, regaling some fans and friends following a performance of "Camelot" in town that night. I later heard that some of the gospel music folks introduced themselves and they spent some time singing together in the Sheraton's lobby. I'm sorry I missed that.