IVOR EMMANUELIvor Emmanuel, who died on 20 July 2007 aged 79, was a classically-trained opera singer who successfully managed to translate his vocal skills to stage and screen.
Harbouring a love of music from a youth spent wandering the Welsh valleys and listening to Enrico Caruso records on his wind-up gramophone, he became for a time one of the best-known singers in the UK.
He was most famous for his role as Private Owen in the 1964 film Zulu, in which he sang a moving rendition of the Welsh battle hymn, ‘Men of Harlech.’ Co-star Stanley Baker said his singing “sent tingles up the spine of everyone on the set.”
He also helped to popularise the Welsh language, appearing on the T.V. series, Gwlad y Gan (Land of Song) which had up to ten million viewers.
Ivor Emmanuel was born 7 November 1927 in Margam, Wales, before moving to Pontrhydyfen near Swansea in 1927.
At 14 he was taken in by his aunt Flossie after his mother, father, sister and grandfather were killed when their village was bombed during World War II.
Following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, Mr Emmanuel began working in the coal mines but his real passion was music, and he spent his evenings singing in the Pontrhydyfen Operatic Society.
Mr Emmanuel took to the stage when he was 20, auditioning for The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. Although he failed the audition, he managed to get a role in Oklahoma, after his old friend Richard Burton helped him get an audition at the Theatre Royal.
He was eventually hired by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1950 and appeared as the Associate in Trial by Jury and Luiz in The Gondoliers.
In the final year of his time with the Company in 1951, Mr Emmanuel married fellow chorister Jean Beazleigh with whom he had two children.
Mr Emmanuel’s chiselled image made him perfect for the West End in which he found a role as Sgt. Kenneth Johnson in the hit production of South Pacific. He also starred in The King and I and Plain and Fancy.
His stage career also took him to the London Coliseum where he played Joe Hardy in Damn Yankees and starred in Finian’s Rainbow. In 1966, towards the end of his career, Mr Emmanuel appeared on the Broadway stage as Mr.Gruffydd in A Time for Singing – a musical version of Richard Llewellyn's novel How Green Was My Valley.
As well as the stage, Mr Emmanuel had a successful career on television, appearing on Welsh singing programmes such as Dewch I Mewn. In 1960 he performed in the first televised edition of The Royal Variety Performance.
The grandeur of Emmanuel’s voice was captured on a number of records, including the 1959 studio cast recordings of Show Boat, Kiss Me Kate, The King and I, and the 1966 Broadway recording of A Time for Singing. He also appears on the box set, The Greatest Musicals of the 20th Century.
He met his second wife, Patricia Bredin in 1964, the same year Zulu was released, although the marriage did not last. In 1978 he married Malinee Oppenborn and had one daughter.
He died at his retirement home in Malaga, Spain, and leaves his wife and three children.
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