Alfred Drake

Alfred Drake, born Alfred Capurro on October 7, 1914, in New York City, was an American actor, singer, and composer whose Broadway career spanned four decades, from 1935 to 1975. The son of parents who had emigrated from Recco, Genoa, Drake grew up in the Bronx and began performing on Broadway while still enrolled at Brooklyn College.

Drake's stage career encompassed a wide range of productions, including The Liars, Out of the Frying Pan, As You Like It, the comedy Magic, and The Cradle Will Rock. He became particularly celebrated for originating leading roles in landmark musicals, among them Oklahoma! and Kiss Me, Kate. Earlier in his career he played Marshall Blackstone in the original production of Babes in Arms, performing the title song. His portrayal of Hajj in Kismet earned him the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 1954. He also headlined the 1961 Broadway musical Kean, based on Jean-Paul Sartre's play with a score by Forrest and Wright. His final Broadway musical appearance came in the 1973–74 production of Lerner and Loewe's Gigi, in which he played Honoré Lachaille, and two years later he starred in a revival of The Skin of Our Teeth.

Beyond musical theatre, Drake was a prolific Shakespearean stage performer, most notably playing Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing opposite Katharine Hepburn. In 1964 he appeared as Claudius in the Richard Burton production of Hamlet at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, a performance captured on film through a process called Electronovision for a limited theatrical engagement and also released on LP.

Drake's work extended to television, where his first musical appearance was as Captain Dick Warrington in a live January 15, 1955 telecast of the operetta Naughty Marietta. The following year he portrayed Marco Polo in Neil Simon's The Adventures of Marco Polo, part of NBC's musical anthology series Max Liebman Presents. He also provided the voice of the Great Ak in the Rankin-Bass stop-motion animated adaptation of L. Frank Baum's The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus. His film work was limited; he starred in Tars and Spars in 1946 and appeared in a minor role as president of the commodities exchange in the 1983 comedy Trading Places, with Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd.

As a director, Drake staged the 1974 premiere of The Royal Rape of Ruari Macasmunde at the Virginia Museum Theater. He also worked as a published author, writing the play Dr. Willy Nilly, an adaptation of Molière's The Doctor in Spite of Himself, an adaptation of Goldoni's The Liar, and at least one book on gin rummy. From 1970 to 1978 he served as president of The Players, the New York social club for theatre professionals founded by actor Edwin Booth in 1889. In 1981 he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

Drake died of heart failure on July 25, 1992, in New York City, following a prolonged illness with cancer, at the age of 77. He was survived by his wife Esther, daughters Candace Olmsted and Samantha Drake, and two grandchildren.