Ivor Emmanuel

Ivor Lewis Emmanuel (7 November 1927 – 20 July 2007) was a Welsh singer and actor whose career spanned musical theatre, television, film, and concert performance. Born in Margam, near Port Talbot, Wales, he moved as a young child to the nearby village of Pontrhydyfen. When Emmanuel was fourteen, a stray bomb struck the village during World War II, killing his father, mother, sister, and grandfather. His aunt Flossie took him in, while his younger brother John went to live with an uncle. Emmanuel subsequently went to work in the coal mines, as his father and grandfather had before him. A member of the Pontrhydyfen Operatic Society, he developed a passion for music and was known to carry a wind-up gramophone up nearby mountains to listen to recordings of Enrico Caruso.

At twenty, Emmanuel auditioned unsuccessfully for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. He encountered his old friend Richard Burton, then performing in The Lady's Not for Burning in London, and confided his ambitions. A telegram from Burton arrived two weeks later directing him to audition at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, where he was cast in Oklahoma!, his first professional theatre engagement. The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company eventually hired him as a chorister in March 1950, and he remained with the company until August 1951. During that period he was assigned the small role of Associate in Trial by Jury and shared the role of Luiz in The Gondoliers. He married fellow D'Oyly Carte chorister Jane Beazleigh upon leaving the company, and the couple had two children.

Emmanuel's baritone voice and stage presence led him to principal roles in West End productions. At the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, he played Sergeant Kenneth Johnson in South Pacific from 1951 to 1953, then took smaller roles in The King and I and Plain and Fancy. His first leading role came at the London Coliseum, where he played Joe Hardy in Damn Yankees in 1957, followed by the role of Woody Mahoney in Finian's Rainbow in Liverpool and on a short tour. In 1966, Emmanuel made his Broadway appearance in A Time for Singing, a musical adaptation of Richard Llewellyn's novel How Green Was My Valley, playing Mr. Gruffydd, a minister. The production ran for 41 performances. He subsequently took his final West End role in 110 in the Shade at the Palace Theatre. Emmanuel continued performing in summer seasons, cabaret, and variety at holiday resorts into the 1980s.

In 1964, Emmanuel appeared as Private Owen in the film Zulu, in which his character leads outnumbered British soldiers at Rorke's Drift in 1879 in the Welsh battle hymn "Men of Harlech" to counter Zulu war chants. That same year he married actress Patricia Bredin; the marriage ended in divorce less than two years later. He later married Malinee Oppenborn, and the couple had a daughter in 1978.

Emmanuel's television career began in the late 1950s, when he participated in the Welsh-language singing programme Dewch i Mewn. From 1958 to 1964 he served as lead singer on the TWW programme Gwlad y Gan (Land of Song), which broadcast across the United Kingdom once a month and regularly drew audiences of approximately ten million viewers. In May 1960, he performed in the first televised edition of the Royal Variety Performance, sharing the bill with performers including Vera Lynn, Sammy Davis Jr., Nat King Cole, and Liberace. He continued making television appearances through the 1970s and later appeared in a 2006 BBC documentary alongside Welsh singer Bryn Terfel.

His recording credits include the 1959 studio cast recordings of Show Boat, Kiss Me, Kate, and The King and I, as well as the 1966 Broadway original cast recording of A Time for Singing. He appeared as Frederic on the 1966 RCA Victrola recording of The Pirates of Penzance, which starred Martyn Green, and is featured on the five-disc box set The Greatest Musicals of the 20th Century. He also released a solo album of 24 songs titled The Best of Ivor Emmanuel. An S4C documentary about the wartime bombing that killed his family was produced in 2001. Emmanuel retired in 1984 to Benalmadena, near Málaga, Spain, where an HTV television profile, It's My Life: Man of Song, was filmed and broadcast on 14 July 1997. In 1991, he lost savings of £220,000 in the collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International. Emmanuel died of a stroke in Málaga at the age of 79, survived by his wife Malinee and his three children.