[1] Kiley created the role of Don Quixote in the original 1965 production of the Broadway musical Man of La Mancha and was the first to sing and record "The Impossible Dream", the hit song from the show.

[4] Following his service in the Navy during World War II, he returned to Chicago working as an actor and announcer on radio before moving to New York City.

His third Emmy win was for Guest Actor in a Drama Series, for an episode of Picket Fences, in which he had a recurring role as the father of main character Jill Brock (Kathy Baker).

Kiley also received an Emmy nomination for portraying Chief Justice Earl Warren in the 1991 miniseries Separate but Equal dramatizing Brown vs. Board of Education.

Starting with ‘Land of the Tiger’ in 1985, Richard Kiley provided narration for multiple National Geographic Video television specials.

[8] Kiley died of an unspecified bone marrow disease at Horton Hospital in Middletown, New York, on March 5, 1999, less than a month before his 77th birthday.

He was survived by his wife, dancer Patricia Ferrier,[9] and six children from his first marriage:[10] sons David and Michael Kiley and daughters Kathleen, Dorothea, Erin and Deirdre.