Robert Merrill
Robert Merrill (June 4, 1917 – October 23, 2004) was an American operatic baritone and actor, who was also active in the musical theatre circuit. He received the National Medal of Arts in 1993.
For the songwriter/composer, see Bob Merrill.
Robert Merrill
Moishe Miller
- Robert Merrill
- Morris Miller
June 4, 1917
Brooklyn, New York, US
October 23, 2004 (aged 87)
New Rochelle, New York, US
- Singer
- Actor
Voice (baritone)
Early life[edit]
Merrill was born Moishe Miller, later known as Morris Miller, in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York. He was the son of tailor Abraham Miller, originally Milstein, and his wife, Lillian (née Balaban), Jewish immigrants from Pultusk, Poland, near Warsaw. His paternal grandparents were Berl Milstein and Chana (née Mlawski), both from Pultusk, Poland.
His mother claimed to have had an operatic and concert career in Poland (a fact denied by her son in his biographies) and encouraged her son to have early voice training: he had a stutter, which wasn't apparent when singing. Merrill was inspired to pursue professional singing lessons when he saw the baritone Richard Bonelli singing Count Di Luna in a performance of Il Trovatore at the Metropolitan Opera, and paid for them with money earned as a semi-professional pitcher.[1]
Metropolitan Opera[edit]
His role in the musical comedy film Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick (1952) led to a conflict with Sir Rudolf Bing and a brief departure from the Met in 1951. Merrill sang many different baritone roles, and after the untimely on-stage death of the celebrated Leonard Warren in 1960, became the Met's principal baritone, sharing that position in a few years with Cornell MacNeil. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he appeared under the direction of Alfredo Antonini in performances of arias from the Italian operatic repertoire for the open air Italian Night concert series at Lewisohn Stadium in New York City.[2][3][4][5]
He was described by Time as "one of the Met's best baritones". Yet reviews were not consistently good: Opera magazine reported on a Metropolitan Opera performance of Barber of Seville in which Merrill delivered "by all odds the most insensitive impersonation of the season". He was accused by the reviewer of "loud, coarse sounds" and "no grace, no charm, as he butchered the text and galumphed around the stage".[6]
Sporting events[edit]
Relatively late in his singing career, Merrill also became known for singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Yankee Stadium and Giants Stadium. He first sang the national anthem to open the 1967 baseball season, and it became a tradition for the Yankees to bring him back each year on Opening Day and special occasions. He sang at various Old Timer's Days (wearing his own pinstriped Yankee uniform with the number "11⁄2" on the back) and the emotional pre-game ceremony in memory of Thurman Munson at Yankee Stadium on August 3, 1979, the day after the catcher died in a plane crash. Merrill also sang at one World Series game in each year the Yankees played the Fall Classic at the stadium, starting in 1976. A recorded Merrill version is still sometimes used at Yankee Stadium, mainly at Old Timer's Day. In 2021, the Yankees replaced the live organ version of God Bless America that had played for almost two years with Merrill's cover.
Merrill preferred a traditional approach to the song, devoid of additional ornamentation, as he explained to Newsday in 2000, "When you sing the anthem, there's a legitimacy to it. I'm extremely bothered by these different interpretations of it." Merrill appeared opposite Adam Sandler in a scene singing the national anthem, in the 2003 film Anger Management. Merrill joked that an entire generation of people know him as "The 'Say-Can-You-See' guy!" (Agmazine, April 1996).
Personal life[edit]
While there has been dispute regarding his birth year (some claim he was born in 1919),[1] the Social Security Death Index,[8] his family, and his gravestone state that he was born in 1917.
Merrill was married briefly to soprano Roberta Peters in 1952. They parted amicably; he had two children with his second wife, Marion (d. March 20, 2010), née Machno, a pianist. Merrill liked to play golf and was a member of the Westchester Country Club in Rye, New York, for many years.
He wrote two books of memoirs, Once More from the Beginning (1965) and Between Acts (1976), and he co-authored a novel, The Divas (1978).
Merrill toured all over the world with his arranger and conductor, Angelo DiPippo, who wrote most of his act and performed at concert halls throughout the world.