Robert Goulet, 73, dies

The big-voiced singer first played Las Vegas at the Flamingo in 1963, riding the tide of his breakthrough role in "Camelot," and owned his valley home since 1974. His later career relied more on travel, but Goulet still held hopes of becoming a resident headliner at the new casino (since announced as the Plaza) set to replace the Frontier.

"I may just die onstage. Hey, hey, that’s the dream, isn’t it?" he said with characteristic humor in 2005.

Goulet had been under sedation at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he had awaited a lung transplant since Oct. 13. He was pronounced dead at 10:17 a.m. and died in the company of his wife, Vera, and sons, Christopher and Michael.

The singer was transferred to Cedars-Sinai after 12 days of hospitalization in Las Vegas. During that stint, his longtime local physician, Dr. David Kipper, determined he would not survive without a lung transplant. Southern Nevada has no lung transplant program.

A transplant was never performed.

"It happened pretty quick. He just got too weak," said Paige O’Hara of the Las Vegas Hilton’s "Menopause: The Musical," who performed with Goulet on tour in "South Pacific" and at The Venetian. "He wouldn’t have made it through the operation."

Goulet last performed Sept. 20 in Syracuse, N.Y., and complained of feeling weak and short of breath. He had dismissed earlier breathing problems as part of his recovery from an August surgery on his shoulder for a torn rotator cuff.

The Syracuse date was an amazing performance and no one could tell he had a lung ailment, said Phillip Randall, Goulet’s longtime production manager. "We didn’t know it would be his last," Randall said.

Interstitial pulmonary fibrosis is a condition in which the lung’s air sacs, or alveoli, become damaged and scarring, or fibrosis, occurs in the tissue between those air sacs. As the disease progresses, which can happen gradually or rapidly, the tissue in the lungs becomes stiff and no longer able to transport oxygen.

Goulet quit smoking cigarettes years ago but occasionally smoked cigars, a family friend said.

He was born Robert Gerard Goulet on Nov. 26, 1933, in Lawrence, Mass., to Joseph and Jeannette Goulet. At 13, after his father’s death, he moved with his mother and sister to Edmonton, Alberta.

His first professional appearance was at age 16 with the Edmonton Symphony, but his breakthrough came in late 1960 when he won the role of Sir Lancelot in "Camelot." The relative newcomer was cast alongside Richard Burton and Julie Andrews.

"No one talked to me" at the first rehearsal, Goulet recalled in 2001, and at one point Burton reacted to Goulet’s cold reading of the script by throwing his hands over his face.

"I thought, ‘I’m on the next plane back to Toronto.’ "

But after lunch came vocal rehearsals. Burton heard Goulet’s baritone and told director Moss Hart, "He’s got the voice of an angel."

Goulet’s first Flamingo engagement was in February 1963, while hot on a recording career that won him a Grammy for Best New Artist.

In the 1970s, Goulet became part of the Summa Corp.’s regular entertainment roster at the Frontier and Desert Inn, at least once co-billed with former wife Carol Lawrence.

"I used to do two shows a night, six nights a week, at 8 o’clock and midnight," Goulet recalled in 2001. "At 2 o’clock you’re in a lounge watching Shecky Greene or Don Rickles. We’d get home at 4 in the morning and be on the golf course at 8. I don’t know how we did it, but we were young."

Personal setbacks involving alcohol took their toll in that era. "The booze was contributing to my downfall in the 1970s. When that drinking stopped, things began to turn around," he told The Associated Press in 1982.

But in March 1983, Goulet pleaded no contest after a drunken driving arrest in Marina del Rey, Calif. It was an era in which he spent more time on his yacht after his divorce from actress Lawrence. Goulet was previously married to Louise Longmore.

In early 1981, Goulet renewed an acquaintance with Vera Chochorovska Novak, a Yugoslavian-born photographer and antiques dealer. The two were married on the Strip at the Little Church of the West on Oct. 17, 1982. Wayne Newton served as the best man and actor Glenn Ford gave away the bride. After the ceremony, the two rode a mile along the Strip in a horse-drawn surrey to the Dunes, where Goulet was performing.

The Dunes struck a then-uncommon "two-wall" agreement for a headliner: Goulet agreed to hire his own opening act and pay some production expenses, while the hotel paid for the showroom staff. A two-week commitment for the profit-sharing concept turned into a 39-week run, and the business arrangement has become fairly standard on the Strip.

Goulet remained a marquee regular on the Strip through 1986. But self-financed stints at the Aladdin and The Venetian proved less successful.

He had hoped the 1991 dates with Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor and Rip Taylor would draw well enough in the Aladdin’s concert hall to finance a resident production of "Camelot."

"My dream is to bring legitimate theater to this town," Goulet said at the time.

After a disappointing stretch at The Venetian in the summer of 2001, Goulet said: "I’m very sad because I was really looking forward to having a long run in this town. I wanted to do that so badly."

But he returned to the good money of symphony pops concerts and touring versions of "Camelot," "South Pacific" and "Man of La Mancha," as well as self-deprecating TV commercials — most recently for Emerald Nuts during the Super Bowl — and movie roles such as "The Naked Gun 21/2."

One self-referential cameo was in 2005 on NBC’s "Las Vegas" series.

"We just felt he was one of those Vegas icons — ‘We gotta get him,’ " said Gary Scott Thompson, creator and executive producer. "It was fun to watch him."

Goulet enjoyed the company of other Las Vegas entertainers. Lance Burton pulled him onstage during a 10th anniversary performance at the Monte Carlo in June 2006, and Paul McCartney’s bodyguards nearly knocked him over at the debut of "Love" that same month.

The singer continued to hold out hope for a return to the Strip as late as 2005, three years after he was announced as a probable headliner for whatever casino would replace the Frontier.

"My dream job would be to be there (Las Vegas) for the rest of my life," Goulet said in March 2005, when he instead found himself briefly performing in a Broadway revival of "La Cage aux Folles."

"(Perform) 40 weeks a year, and when I’m 85 maybe curtail it. … Sleep in my own bed and relax. That to me would be a nice way to go out."