Ron Holgate
| Ron Holgate | |
|---|---|
| Born |
May 26, 1937 Aberdeen, South Dakota, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor, Singer |
| Years active | 1960s–2000s |
| Spouse(s) |
Dorothy Collins (m. 1966–1977; divorced) Anny DeGange (m. 1989–present) |
Ronald "Ron" Holgate (born May 26, 1937, Aberdeen, South Dakota) is an American actor and opera singer. He won the Tony Award for Best Supporting Actor as Richard Henry Lee in the original Broadway production of 1776, a role he reprised in 1972 for the film.
The son of a school superintendent and a drama teacher, raised in South Dakota, Holgate originally intended to become a classical actor and studied drama with Alvina Krause at Northwestern University. While there, however, he was discovered by Boris Goldovsky, and went on to study opera at both Tanglewood and the New England Conservatory. In 1959, Holgate, a bass-baritone, won second prize in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, finishing after Teresa Stratas; he went on to tour with Goldovsky's New England Opera Theater.
By the early 1960s, however, Holgate had gone back to theater, only resuming a regular opera career in the 1970s. Roles like the narcissistic Miles Gloriosus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (which he originated in the show's Broadway premiere) led to him developing a reputation for what Frank Rich called "vain ladies' men."
Until 2005, he worked regularly on and Off-Broadway, in regional theatre, and in over a dozen national and international tours. As an opera singer, Holgate played leading roles in La Boheme, Don Giovanni, and the world premiere of Philip Marshall, among many others. He had an active career as a concert singer, which included performances at Carnegie Hall and a Broadway revue with his first wife, Dorothy Collins (1926–1994; who was a decade his elder). He and Collins were married from 1966 to 1977. He was featured in the first concert devoted to Stephen Sondheim's work.
...
Wikipedia