After his father's death in 1930, Keel and his mother moved to California, where he graduated from Fallbrook High School at age 17.

[3] At age 20, Keel was overheard singing by his landlady Mom Rider and was encouraged to take vocal lessons.

[citation needed] Nevertheless, his first public performance took place in the summer of 1941 when he played the role of Samuel the Prophet in Handel's oratorio Saul (singing a duet with bass-baritone George London).

In 1945, he made his Broadway debut as a vacation replacement for John Raitt in Carousel, playing the role of Billy Bigelow from August 20 - September 8, 1945.

[2] On April 30, 1947, at the Drury Lane Theatre, the capacity audience (which included the future Queen Elizabeth II) demanded 14 encores.

He appeared at The Muny in St. Louis as Adam in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), Emile de Becque in South Pacific (1992), and as General Waverly in White Christmas (2000).

[12] Keel had a third hit in a row with the comedy Three Guys Named Mike (1951), supporting Van Johnson and Jane Wyman.

Even more popular was Show Boat (1951), where Keel played the male lead with Kathryn Grayson and Ava Gardner.

He had his first flop at MGM with the comedy Callaway Went Thataway (1952) co-starring Fred MacMurray and Dorothy McGuire.

Warner Bros borrowed Keel to play Wild Bill Hickok with Doris Day in Calamity Jane (1953), another hit.

However Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) with Jane Powell was a huge success, and it made MGM over $3 million in profit.

The 1960s held limited prospects for career advancement and consisted primarily of nightclub work, B-Westerns and summer stock.

Years later, Keel called the relationship love at first sight, but the age difference bothered him tremendously.

For Magamoll, however, it was not a problem, and with the aid of Robert Frost's poem "What Fifty Said", she convinced him to proceed with their relationship.

From 1971 to 1972, Keel appeared briefly in the West End and Broadway productions of the musical Ambassador, which flopped.

Keel continued to tour with his wife and daughter in tow, but by 1980 had decided to make his life change.

The family had barely settled down when Keel was called to California to appear with Jane Powell on an episode of The Love Boat.

In 1981, after several guest appearances, Keel joined the show permanently as the dignified but hot-tempered oil baron Clayton Farlow.

[2] Starting with an appearance on the fourth season, the character had been meant as a semi-replacement patriarch for the series' Jock Ewing played by Jim Davis, who had died.