ROBERT PRESTON: THE ACTOR WHO SANG BY NOT SINGING

My wife can not stomach the singing of Robert Preston, which is unfortunate because The Music Man is one of my favorite musicals. When audiences think of The Music Man, they often hear Robert Preston’s rapid‑fire patter and charismatic swagger long before they recall any classical vocal runs. Preston wasn’t a traditional singer, and that is precisely what made him unforgettable. His voice didn’t soar; it drove. He didn’t croon; he spoke his melodies into existence. And in doing so, he delivered one of the most iconic musical‑theater performances of all time.

Despite a widespread belief that he “couldn’t sing,” Preston actually entered show business with real musical knowledge. He was a trained musician who played several instruments before turning his focus fully to acting, giving him a strong sense of rhythm even if he didn’t possess a typical vocalist’s range.

Still, instrumental skill did not automatically translate to vocal confidence. Unlike his Broadway peers, Preston was not known for vocal bravado. So when he was cast as Harold Hill in Meredith Willson’s The Music Man in 1957, many saw his lack of conventional singing experience as a gamble. 

Preston’s genius emerged not in the form of classical singing but in the way he shaped music through character. Musical‑theater fans often highlight that certain lead roles—Harold Hill among them—are written for performers who rely more on rhythm, personality, and timing than on sustained melodic lines. According to theater enthusiasts, Preston’s performance essentially established Harold Hill as a “singing‑second” role, one that thrives on speak‑singing rather than operatic technique.

This became especially clear in numbers like “Ya Got Trouble,” which demands relentless pacing, breath control, and clarity more than it requires smooth, lyrical singing. Preston delivered these with electrifying energy, using cadence and character to transform the song into one of musical theater’s great showpieces. 

Over the years, stories circulated claiming that Preston had never sung in public before The Music Man. Some fans insisted he had “no singing background” and that his performance was a triumph of pure storytelling over traditional vocal talent.

The truth is somewhat more nuanced. While he wasn’t a classically trained vocalist, he had already performed Harold Hill on Broadway hundreds of times—and even won a Tony Award for the role—before reprising it in the 1962 film.

What is true is that Preston approached singing primarily as an actor. Rather than shape his character around musical lines, he shaped his musical delivery around the character. This inversion became his signature strength. 

Preston’s success came from qualities that had little to do with traditional vocal range. His phrasing, timing, and emotional precision allowed him to turn songs into performance pieces rather than vocal showcases. In “‘Til There Was You,” for instance, he embraced sincerity rather than vocal fireworks, carefully phrasing his lines opposite Shirley Jones’s polished soprano. Fans and commentators often note how surprisingly tender the moment becomes, despite his limited range.

His unconventional vocal approach made his version of Harold Hill so definitive that many later performers have chosen to imitate his speak‑singing rather than attempt a more melodic or classically trained interpretation. 

Robert Preston’s career defies the idea that musical‑theater success requires a pitch‑perfect voice. His performance as Harold Hill earned him a Tony Award, a Golden Globe nomination, and a permanent place in Broadway and Hollywood history. He proved that in musical storytelling, authenticity can matter more than technique. What he lacked in classical singing ability, he made up for with magnetic personality, impeccable timing, and unmatched stage presence. His voice may not have soared, but it captivated. And in the world of musical theater, that can matter far more than hitting a perfect high note...

RIP: SAM NEILL

Actor Sam Neill, known for his roles in the "Jurassic Park" films and "Peaky Blinders," died on Monday, according to his official social media account. He was 78.

"Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life," the statement, which was posted early on Monday, said. "The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free."

Neill, who was born Nigel John Dermot Neill on Sept. 14, 1947, in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, didn't get exposure to acting until he was in college.

As a kid, Neill's parents were in the army, and his father's family owned a vineyard. When he was 7, Neill and his family moved to New Zealand. It was while he attended the University of Canterbury that he gained exposure to acting.

In 1971, Neill landed his first acting role in the New Zealand television film "The City of No." He was cast in several TV film roles before his being cast as the lead in the 1977 New Zealand film, "Sleeping Dogs," an action thriller film.

Following "Sleeping Dogs," Neill worked on several TV shows and films in Australia, including the TV show "The Sullivans" and the 1979 films, "The Journalist" and "Just Out of Reach."

In 1981, he starred in his first international role for "Omen III: The Final Conflict," in which he played Damien Thorn.

Of all the roles he's had, his portrayal of Dr. Alan Grant in the 1993 film "Jurassic Park" is perhaps his most well-known. The science fiction action Steven Spielberg directed-film, based on Michael Chrichton's 1990 novel of the same name, followed a team of genetic scientists who have created a wildlife park of de-extinct dinosaurs. Neill's character was inspired by paleontologist Jack Horner.

In a 2022 interview with Forbes, Neill said, "Alan Grant is like an old comfortable pair of boots."

"They've seen better days, but they're really comfortable, and there's no way you'll get rid of those," he said.

Neill also reprised his character in "Jurassic Park III" and "Jurassic World Dominion."

While looking back at his film career portraying Dr. Alan Grant, the actor said that the franchise "took me completely by surprise."

"I never thought there would be another one, let alone six in total," he said. "I also never imagined that that first film would, in particular, would make a place for itself so much in popular culture. People can quote the lines. Alan Grant taking off his dark glasses to see things has become a meme. You just do them at the time, and then 30 years later, it's still part of people's lives. It's baffling, really."
'Merlin,' 'Peaky Blinders' and othe roles

Following "Jurassic Park," Neill starred in a number of films including "Bicentennial Man" alongside Robin Williams, and the 1997 science fiction horror film "Event Horizon."

He also starred in "Merlin," playing the mythical wizard, and the historical drama, "The Tudors."

Throughout his career, Neill received many awards as an actor but the award that was perhaps most meaningful to him was when he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1991, which he was able to share with his father, just before he died.

"I got a letter and I took the letter and dad as in his bed on his way out and I said, 'Dad, they're giving me an OBE,'" Neill recalled in a 2017 interview with Julia Zemiro of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation iview show, "Home Delivery." "And he said, 'I'm very proud of you.'"

In 2022, Neill also earned the title of Sir as a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
Battle with cancer

While promoting his memoir, "Did I Ever Tell You This?," in March 2023, Neill told The Guardian that he was being treated for stage 3 blood cancer.

The previous year, he had opened up about his diagnosis, saying he is cancer free, but will continue to receive chemotherapy. While undergoing chemotherapy, he told the outlet that he had experienced "dark moments."

"Those dark moments throw the light into sharp relief, you know, and have made me grateful for every day and immensely grateful for all my friends," he said. "Just pleased to be alive."

In 2022, Neill was diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, "a rare, often but not always, aggressive (fast-growing) form of peripheral T-cell lymphoma," according to the Lymphoma Research Foundation.

Neill is survived by his children, Elena Neill, who he shared with ex-wife, Noriko Watanabe, and Tim Neill, who he shares with New Zealand actress Lisa Harrow...

BING CROSBY: THE HOLLYWOOD YEARS - PART 13

RIP: JOANNA PETTET

Beloved London born Hollywood actress Joanna Pettet died on Tuesday July 7 at the age of 83. The sad news was confirmed by her friend, actress Pam DuBois, who revealed the poignantly significant date of her death in a touching Facebook post. Alongside an image of the star at a graveside she wrote: "We all loved Jo - But there was one person who loved her more. And yesterday on the 31st anniversary of his death. Damien Zach took his mother to heaven and there she will stay with him forever. God bless you Jo." No cause of death has been revealed as of yet.

On August8, 1969, the star had lunch at the home of Sharon Tate, just hours before the members of the Manson Family slaughtered the pregnant star, making her one of the last people to see the tragic actress alive. Quentin Taratino included the lunch in his 2019 fictional/alternate-reality 2019 film Once Upon a Time. In Hollywood, in which she was portrayed by Rumer Willis.

Amongst the stars big screen credits was the role of Mata Bond in the 1967 James Bond satire Casino Royale, loosely based on the first of Ian Fleming's books about the super spy.

She also starred in 1968's Blue opposite Terence Stamp, and 1969's Victorian period comedy The Best House in London. However she was best known for her extensive work on TV which included roles in Route 66, The Doctors, Dr. Kildare, Mannix, Night Gallery, Thriller, Police Woman, Charlie’s Angels, The Love Boat, Hotel, and Murder, She Wrote.

Her final role was in the 1990 thriller Terror in Paradise, after which she retired from acting although she was only in her 40s...

THE SHORT LIFE OF RUDOPLH VALENTINO

Born on May 6, 1895 in Castellaneta Italy, Rodolfo Alfonso Rafaello Pierre Filibert Guglielmi di Valentina D’Antonguolla came to America in 1913. He was penniless, and lived on the streets of New York City. He eventually got a job as a taxi dancer at a cabaret called Maxim’s, where he’d spend his nights dancing with wealthy women for money. During this time, he met Blanca de Saulles, an heiress in an unhappy marriage who would end up shooting her husband to death. Valentino, who had already been tangled up in legal trouble with the couple, decided it was best to leave New York and head to California.

Valentino continued to work as a dance instructor on the West Coast and had some small parts in films as well. It is said that he would show up at auditions driving fancy automobiles he’d borrow from wealthy clients. He eventually found himself in Florida, where he shot parts of “Stolen Moments” (1920) for the American Cinema Corporation in Saint Augustine alongside Marguerite Namara. During production, Valentino learned that Metro Pictures were planning an adaptation of the novel The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Interested, he made his way back to New York and was cast as Julio Desnoyers. Released in 1921, the film was a box office smash and would thrust Valentino’s name into the spotlight. That same year, he would star in the wildly successful, “The Sheik”. Valentino became known as The Latin Lover, an image and a burden he found unbearable. Women adored him, and men (known as Vaselinos) wanted to be him. But not everyone was impressed.

In 1922, the writer Dick Dorgan published a piece in Photoplay magazine, stating, “the Sheik is a bum Arab, that he is really an Englishman whose mother was a wop or something like that.” Valentino did not take the insult lightly, and he swore that he would kill the writer if he saw him. But that didn’t seem to deter Dorgan. He went on to publish another piece entitled, “A Song of Hate”. In it, Dorgan would refer to Valentino’s long eyelashes, earrings and “patent leather hair”.

Dorgan wasn’t the only man who took issue with Valentino. Photoplay would later publish another piece by Herbert Howe. He writes, “The movie boys haven’t been the same, they’re all racing around wearing spit curls, bobbed hair and silk panties.… This can’t keep up. The public can stand just so many ruffles and no more.” Valentino began to despise his image and would fight tooth and nail against it. Still, the actor’s masculinity was constantly called into question.

Things finally reached a boiling point in 1926, when the Chicago Tribune ran an anonymous editorial entitled, “Pink Powder Puffs”. The author railed against a powder dispenser that had been installed in a public men’s room and blamed Valentino and his influence on society. He wrote, “A powder vending machine! In a men’s washroom! Homo Americanus! Why didn’t someone quietly drown Rudolph Guglielmo , alias Valentino, years ago?… Do women like the type of “man” who pats pink powder on his face in a public washroom and arranges his coiffure in a public elevator?… Hollywood is the national school of masculinity. Rudy, the beautiful gardener’s boy, is the prototype of the American male.”

Valentino was furious, and he sent a challenge to a competing Chicago newspaper: “To the man (?) who wrote the editorial headed ‘Pink Powder Puffs’ in Sunday’s Tribune, I call you in return, a contemptible coward and to prove which of us is a better man, challenge you to a personal test.” He then goes on to challenge him to a boxing match. The challenge was never accepted, but Valentino still received boxing lessons from his friend Jack Dempsey and, after all the tough talk, a sportswriter named Frank O’Neil decided to take Valentino on. The match took place on the roof of the Ambassador Hotel. O’Neil only got one punch before Valentino quickly took him down. But, always the gentlemen, he immediately helped him up and apologized. The public ate it up.

But Valentino wasn’t satisfied and he continued to take the insults to heart. His friend H.L. Mencken would later write about how much it haunted Valentino: ““Here was a young man who was living daily the dream of millions of other young men. Here was one who was catnip to women. Here was one who had wealth and fame. And here was one who was very unhappy.”

Later that year, Valentino starred in “The Son of the Sheik”. The film was another hit and Valentino was particularly pleased with the press he received that repeatedly referred to his manliness. One reviewer wrote that: “the sheik has an arm that would do credit to a pugilist and a most careless way of hurling himself off balconies and on and off horses. One leap from a balcony to a swinging chandelier is as good as anything Douglas Fairbanks ever did.”

Sadly, Valentino collapsed two weeks later at the Ambassador Hotel. He was rushed to the hospital where he underwent surgery for a ruptured appendix. It was a routine procedure, but he then developed pleuritis in his left lung and his condition worsened. On August 23, Rudolph Valentino slipped into a coma. Hours later, at the age of 31, he was gone.

More than 100,000 people gathered outside the funeral home where Valentino lay. The New York Police Department had to be called in to control the mob. His body was then taken by train to the West Coast and he was laid to rest in Hollywood.

For many years after, on the anniversary of his death, a veiled woman in black could be found at Valentino’s Hollywood tomb. She would place twelve red roses and one white one on his grave. It was later proven to be another publicity stunt, but that hasn’t stopped countless other women in black who have continued the tradition.

A HOLLYWOOD HERO: GARY SINISE

In 1974, Gary Sinise and two friends, Terry Kinney and Jeff Perry, founded the Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Since then, Steppenwolf has showcased the talents of notable actors such as Joan Allen, Kevin Anderson, Gary Cole, Ethan Hawke, Glenne Headly, John Mahoney, John Malkovich, Laurie Metcalf, Martha Plimpton, Jim True-Frost, and William Petersen. Sinise honed his acting and directing skills at Steppenwolf, and received a Joseph Jefferson Award for his direction of Lyle Kessler's play "Orphans". That took him from Chicago to New York City, and then to London's West End, where he worked on more than thirty of the company's productions.

In 1982, Sinise's career began to take off when he directed and starred in Steppenwolf's production of "True West". In 1983, he earned an Obie Award for his direction, and a year later appeared with John Malkovich in the PBS' American Playhouse production of the play. In 1988, Sinise directed "Miles from Home", a film starring Richard Gere, about two brothers' fight against the foreclosure of the family farm. Sinise collaborated with fellow actor Tom Hanks three times, including "Forrest Gump" (1992), "Apollo 13" (1995), and "The Green Mile" (1999).

Sinise is a supporter of various veterans' organizations, both personally and through the Lt. Dan Band (named after his Oscar-nominated character from "Forest Gump"). He frequently performs on USO tours at military bases around the world, and volunteered for the National Vietnam Veterans Arts Museum now called the National Veterans Art Museum. In 2013, he was awarded the third highest honor within the Department of the Army Civilian Awards, the Outstanding Civilian Service Award, for substantial contributions to the U.S. Army community through his work with the Gary Sinise Foundation. Each year the foundation raises over $30 million which it uses to benefit military veterans, including building smart homes for those who are disabled. He received the 2015 Sylvanus Thayer Award, awarded by the West Point Association of Graduates to a non-West Point graduate whose character, service, and achievements reflect the ideals prized by the U.S. Military Academy...

HEALTHWATCH: DANNY GLOVER

The "Lethal Weapon" star, 79, shared news of his diagnosis in a conversation with the "Today" show that aired Wednesday, July 1. He said he has been living with the disease for several years and that it has slowed his speech, movement and memories.

Glover sat down in his home with NBC's Lester Holt for the interview.

"I could live with it, in a sense," Glover said, but added that as the disease progresses, "things are going to be different and changing."

Alzheimer's disease, the most common type of dementia, is a progressive brain disorder that "begins with mild memory loss and can lead to the inability to carry on a conversation, carry out daily activities, or respond to the environment," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Glover also spoke with the media about receiving his diagnosis in 2023, saying he came to terms with it with the help of his family. "I still have my daughter, I have friends," he told the outlet. "I want to just say, your life continues."

"I'm still not accepting in my mind all parts of it," he also said. "There are the moments that you keep remembering that validate the fact that you can remember stuff. And there are moments I'll never forget."

Glover's daughter, Mandisa, told the media that her father is "aware sometimes and then sometimes not," and she described the diagnosis as a "change in the core of who you think you are or don't think you are." But the actor said he doesn't feel it's "the end of my life," telling  us, "There's work to do." Glover shared the news of his diagnosis weeks before his 80th birthday on July 22.

Glover is best known for his role opposite Mel Gibson as homicide detective Roger Murtaugh in the "Lethal Weapon" franchise. He has also starred in movies like "Predator 2," "The Color Purple" and "Places in the Heart," and he has received five Emmy nominations, including for his role as Nelson Mandela in the TV film "Mandela."

In 2022, Glover received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, an honorary Oscar given to individuals "whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry by promoting human welfare and contributing to rectifying inequities."'I'm so proud': Danny Glover accepts humanitarian award at Governors Awards

In a ceremony at the time, Alfre Woodard honored Glover for his longtime activism, noting he was a "driving force" in a student walkout that led to the creation of the Department of Black Studies at San Francisco State University.

"Danny Glover always does the right thing first, without testing the prevailing winds of public opinion," Woodard said. "The places in his heart where he has put his time and his resources outnumber his years...