Ivor Emmanuel

Common card · No. 351193

Ivor Lewis Emmanuel (7 November 1927 – 20 July 2007) was a Welsh musical theatre and television singer and actor. He is probably best remembered, however, for his appearance as Private Owen in the 1964 film Zulu, in which his character rallies outnumbered British soldiers by leading them in the stirring Welsh battle hymn "Men of Harlech" to counter the Zulu war chants. After losing his parents at an early age, Emmanuel began working as a coal miner. He developed a keen interest in music and singing, however, and was drawn to the stage. At the age of 20, he had his first professional theatre job in the musical Oklahoma!. He served as a chorister for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1950–1951 but soon went on to play small roles in the West End productions of South Pacific, The King and I and Plain and Fancy. His first leading role was Joe Hardy in Damn Yankees (1957), followed by a tour as Woody Mahoney in Finian's Rainbow. In 1966, he appeared on Broadway in A Time for Singing and then...

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