Actor and Singer Robert Goulet, 73

Baritone Known for Broadway Debut as Lancelot in 'Camelot'

Robert Goulet, 73, whose full-throated baritone renditions of some of the most romantic songs of his era brought tears to the eye and tugs at the heartstrings ever since his Broadway debut in "Camelot," died Oct. 30 in Los Angeles.

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Mr. Goulet, who suffered from a rare type of pulmonary fibrosis, had been waiting for a lung transplant at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Honored, applauded and admired for almost 50 years, Mr. Goulet held the esteem of generations of television, concert and theater audiences as well as the buyers of recorded music. He won a Tony for a stage performance and a Grammy for recording. A TV commercial that featured him won an Emmy.

Through the years, Mr. Goulet remained identified with his performance as Lancelot in "Camelot," in which he sang the song that was his trademark: "If Ever I Would Leave You."

A romantic himself in many ways, and a man born with a musical talent that was honed through rigorous training, Mr. Goulet seemed to chroniclers of the stage to be admirably suited to embody Lancelot, a man who seemed both legend and human being.

Mr. Goulet's onstage musical pledge of perpetual fidelity seemed to draw out deep reservoirs of audience emotion and frequently stopped the show.

He was a fixture in the show business firmament of his era: a friend of Judy Garland's, a colleague of Frank Sinatra's, a partner in a duet of "White Christmas" with Bing Crosby.

He strode the boards on Broadway, went before the klieg lights in Hollywood, was featured on television, including many variety and talk show appearances, and became a perennial in Las Vegas.

On television, he played himself in an episode of "The Simpsons" and made many commercials. He toured frequently in "South Pacific" and "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever."

He sang "The Impossible Dream" on Broadway in "Man of La Mancha" and many times afterward.

His full-throated performance style became so well known that he was parodied on TV and even parodied himself.

He was married three times and had a daughter with his first wife and two sons with his second, singer Carol Lawrence.

A performer who found the romance in the words and music he sang, Mr. Goulet recognized the role of destiny in his own life.

He was born Nov. 26, 1933, in Lawrence, Mass., in a neighborhood where French was spoken. His father was from Quebec, and his mother was from French-speaking Canada by way of Lewiston, Maine.

In one account of his early days, he said that as a boy he sang in the choir in his Catholic church but never gave much thought to making a career in music.

But at age 13, he was called to the bedside of his ailing father, he told a reporter.

"Robert," he remembered his father telling him, "God gave you a voice. You must sing."

Later that night, his father died.

What could he do? Mr. Goulet asked himself. "I had to honor his wish."

He moved to Alberta, Canada, living on a grandparent's farm where there was little money. As a teenager, he performed with the Edmonton Symphony and remembered receiving $25. It was an eye-opener. He thought "there might be something in this after all," he later told a Canadian newspaper.

After roles in summer stock, he received a scholarship to the Royal Conservatory of Music. In time, he appeared on Canadian television and on Canada's largest stages and was asked to audition for "Camelot."

As he remembered it, Richard Burton was at the rehearsal at which he first sang "If Ever I Would Leave You." According to a Canadian newspaper, Burton stared, jaw agape. "The voice of an angel," Burton said.

The show and his performance in it made Mr. Goulet a star and led to many TV appearances, which cemented his fame.

Despite his years in show business, with its worldly concerns, he appeared to maintain a strong spirituality.

"The accolades and the brickbats don't really matter," he once told an interviewer.

Touching his chest, according to a 2005 story in the Toronto Star, he said, "It's what's in here."

Pointing upward, he added: "And what the Boss upstairs thinks of you."