Before starring in the musical "The Music Man", he had not only never appeared in a musical before, he had never sung a note before.
Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 708-709. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.
Cousin of Emmerson Denney, Producer/Personal Manager.
The name of his character in the movie, Mame, Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside is taken from the names of four Civil War generals - Pierre Goustave Toutant Beauregard, Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson, and George Pickett (Confederate), and Ambrose Burnside (Union).
Twice won Broadway's Tony Award as Best Actor (Musical): in 1958, for "The Music Man," a performance he recreated in the film version of the same name, The Music Man (1962); and, in 1967, for "I Do! I Do!". He was also nominated in the same category in 1975 for "Mack and Mabel,: in which he played movie pioneer Mack Sennett.