Harve Presnell

Biography

Date of Birth 14 September 1933, Modesto, California, USA Date of Death 30 June 2009, Santa Monica, California, USA (pancreatic cancer) Birth Name George Harvey Presnell Height 6' 4" (1.93 m) Harve Presnell is a Golden Globe-winning American film, stage and television actor. His height, booming voice, and operatic training landed him a role in Meredith Willson's musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown on stage and screen, premiering on Broadway in 1960. Presnell did some film and television work in the 1960s and early 1970s, but for the next couple of decades concentrated primarily on stage work, playing Rhett Butler in the West End production of Scarlett and touring the US as Daddy Warbucks in Annie and its sequel, Annie Warbucks, among other productions. His film career was revived when he played William H. Macy's father-in-law in Fargo (1997). He also appeared as a co-star of Connie Francis in the 1965 movie When the Boys Meet the Girls, an updated version of the 1943 Judy Garland vehicle Girl Crazy. Subsequent parts included General George C. Marshall in Saving Private Ryan, Mr. Parker on The Pretender, Dr. Sam Lane on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, and A.I. Brooks on Dawson's Creek. He also sang the stirring "They Call the Wind Mariah" in the musical Paint Your Wagon and the baritone role in Eugene Ormandy's 1960 recording of Carl Orff's majestic Carmina Burana, released by Columbia/Sony on LP and CD. His earliest recordings were as a soloist with the Roger Wagner Chorale (Capitol) in the '50s with the Chorale in the background particularly in the LP "Joy to the World" where he sang in "O Holy Night" (Cantique De Noel) — a version that is believed to have popularized the carol in the USA — and the LPs Folk Songs of the New World [Capitol P8324 (1955)] and Folk Songs of the Frontier [Capitol P8332 (1956)], where he sang "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prarie", "Streets of Laredo", and "He's Gone Away" — the latter with Marilyn Horne as fellow soloist. He was one of the stars of NBC's Andy Barker, P.I.