Alfred Drake
ALFRED DRAKE began his Broadway career while still a student at Brooklyn College. He is best known for his leading roles in the original Broadway productions of such American musicals as Oklahoma!, Kiss Me, Kate, and Kean, and for the roles of Marshall Blackstone in the original production of Babes in Arms (in which he sang the title song) and Hajj in Kismet for which he received the Tony Award. He was also a prolific Shakespearean, notably starring as Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing opposite Katharine Hepburn. Drake was mostly a stage and television star; he starred in only one film, Tars and Spars, but played several roles on television. His first musical television appearance was as Captain Dick Warrington in the January 15, 1955 live telecast of the operetta Naughty Marietta. His 1964 stage performance as Claudius in the Richard Burton Hamlet was filmed live on the stage of the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. It was also recorded on LP. Today's audiences may remember him as the bearded and bespectacled President of the Exchange, who eventually fires Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy in the 1983 Eddie Murphy-Dan Aykroyd film Trading Places. His final stage appearance in a musical was in 1973 as Honore LaChaisse in Lerner and Loewe's Gigi. Two years later he starred in a revival of The Skin of Our Teeth. Alfred Drake died of heart failure, after a long fight with cancer, in New York City at the age of 77, in 1992. Bio as of September, 2009. American Theatre Wing programs, interviews and/or credits include: SDCF Masters of the Stage (audio) Howard DaSilva and Alfred Drake - January, 1985 - Listen Now. Internet Broadway Database Listing (IBDB.com)