(Richard Sandomir’s article appeared in The New York Times, 12/29; via Pam Green.)
George S. Irving, a Tony Award-winning actor who was in the original Broadway casts of “Oklahoma!” and “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and amused a wide audience pitching White Owl cigars on television, died on Monday in Manhattan. He was 94.
His daughter, Katherine Irving, said the cause was heart failure.
With his jutting jaw, wavy hair, commanding size and operatic baritone voice, Mr. Irving was a formidable stage presence.
“He didn’t need a microphone,” said James Morgan, the producing artistic director of the York Theater, an Off Broadway company where Mr. Irving reprised some of his roles in decades-old, short-lived Broadway musicals. “He had this incredibly resonant voice, and total precision of diction. You can hear him on recordings — his voice just pops out from everybody else.”
(Read more)
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/29/obituaries/george-s-irving-tony-voice-of-heat-dies-94.html?_r=0
