Bob Keeshan
Robert James Keeshan (June 27, 1927 – January 23, 2004) was an American television producer and actor. He created and played the title role in the children's television program Captain Kangaroo, which ran from 1955 to 1984, the longest-running nationally broadcast children's television program of its day.[1][2] He also played the original Clarabell the Clown on the Howdy Doody television program.
Bob Keeshan
January 23, 2004 (aged 76)
Television host, producer, actor
1947–2004
3
Early life[edit]
Bob Keeshan was born to Irish parents[3] in Lynbrook, New York.[4] After an early graduation in 1945 from Forest Hills High School in Queens, New York, during World War II, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve, but was still in the United States when Japan surrendered. He attended Fordham University on the GI Bill. He received his bachelor's degree in education in 1951.[5]
An urban legend claims that actor Lee Marvin said on The Tonight Show that he had fought alongside Keeshan at the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. Over time, this legend has been published verbatim.[6][7] Other legends had compounded on it, such that Keeshan was a trained killer,[8] that he was awarded the Navy Cross,[9][10] that he was a tough sergeant who saved the lives of dozens of men and women in the war,[11] and that he destroyed a German tank in action in North Africa (an apparent confusion with a similarly named British soldier).[12] However, Marvin never made the statement (he never served in Iwo Jima, but was wounded during the Battle of Saipan).[13] Keeshan never saw combat in Europe or Japan, having enlisted too late to serve overseas.[6][14] The Naval Historical Center in Washington, D.C, still receives calls asking for verification of Keeshan's "heroic" war service.[15][9] Keeshan continuously dispelled the rumors.[9]
Heart attack and retirement[edit]
Keeshan suffered a severe heart attack just moments after stepping off a plane at Toronto Pearson International Airport on July 11, 1981, which pushed the start of a revamped version of his show back to at least mid-August.[22] He had come to the city to accept a children's service award.[23]
Keeshan underwent triple-bypass surgery and received an estimated 5,000 get-well wishes from fans during his hospitalization.[24][25]
Following the heart attack, Keeshan received three Emmy Awards for Outstanding Performer in 1982, 1983, and 1984.[26] Despite these accolades, Keeshan's show was shortened from its hour-long format to 30 minutes in 1981, to make room for the expansion of the CBS Morning News lineup. The program was retitled Wake Up with the Captain, and moved to a new 7:00 am time slot. At the start of 1982, the show was rescheduled to an even earlier slot of 6:30 am. In the fall of 1982, CBS installed it as a weekend-only hour offering, and two years later, in the fall of 1984, the show became a Saturday half-hour entry.
Tired of CBS's constant reductions of his show, Keeshan left Captain Kangaroo when his contract with the network ended in December 1984, just nine months shy of the show's 30th anniversary. By 1987, repeats of the show were airing daily on many PBS stations.
Keeshan's show was given a farewell of sorts with Captain Kangaroo and Friends, a primetime network TV special that aired in 1985.
Personal life[edit]
Keeshan was married to Anne Jeanne Laurie Keeshan for 45 years, until her death February 25, 1996.[16] They had three children: Michael Derek, Laurie Margaret, and Maeve Jeanne.
Keeshan resided on Melbury Road in Babylon Village, Long Island, New York, before moving to spend the last 14 years of his life in Norwich, Vermont, where he became a children's advocate, as well as an author.[35] His memoirs, Good Morning, Captain, were published in 1995 by Fairview Press.[36] Bob Keeshan died in Windsor, Vermont, on January 23, 2004, at age 76. He was buried in Saint Joseph's Cemetery in Babylon, New York.[37]
Keeshan's grandson, Britton Keeshan, became the youngest person at that time to have climbed the Seven Summits by climbing Mount Everest in May 2004. He carried photographs of his grandfather on that ascent, and he buried a photo of the two of them at the summit.[38]