Lawrence Mervil Tibbett was born on November 16, 1896, and died on July 15, 1960. He was an American opera singer, recording artist, film actor, and radio personality. Tibbett had a baritone voice, which was large, deep, and rich in tone. His singing could range from very loud and strong to very soft and gentle. He performed main roles at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City more than 600 times between 1923 and 1950. He also acted in many musical theatre productions, including the role of Captain Hook in Peter Pan on a traveling stage production.

Biography

Lawrence Tibbett was born Lawrence Mervil Tibbet (with one "t" at the end) on November 16, 1896, in Bakersfield, California. His father was a part-time law enforcement officer who was killed in a fight with a criminal named Jim McKinney in 1903. Tibbett grew up in Los Angeles and earned money by singing in church choirs and at funerals. He graduated from Manual Arts High School in 1915. A year later, he met his future wife, Grace Mackay Smith, who rented a room in his mother’s house. During World War I, he worked in the Merchant Marine. After the war, he found a job singing before silent movies at the Grauman "Million Dollar" Theater in downtown Los Angeles.

Tibbett studied in New York City with Frank La Forge. In 1923, at age 26, he signed his first contract with the Metropolitan Opera, earning $60 per week and using the name "Tibbett." The Metropolitan Opera mistakenly added an extra "t" to his last name on the contract, and he decided to keep the new spelling. Over the next years, he built a highly successful career at the Met, showing an excellent voice, strong musical skills, and a confident stage presence.

His roles at the Met included Valentin in Charles Gounod’s Faust, Silvio, and later, Tonio in Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, and the King’s Herald in Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin. He first became well-known nationally for playing Ford in Giuseppe Verdi’s Falstaff. In 1927, Tibbett traveled to California to sing the lead role in the Grove Play St. Francis of Assisi. During that trip to San Francisco, he met Jennie Marston Burgard, the daughter of a New York banker, and they married in 1932. In the 1930s, Tibbett performed in Europe and Australia, singing on stage or giving recitals in cities such as London, Paris, Prague, Vienna, Sydney, and Melbourne.

Tibbett made his first recordings for the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1926. He recorded exclusively for Victor/RCA Victor throughout his career. In the early 1930s, he appeared in movies after starting at Neely Dickson’s Hollywood Community Theater. His time in Hollywood was short, but he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his first film, The Rogue Song, a 1930 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production with Laurel and Hardy. The film was shot in two-color Technicolor (only a few minutes of footage and the complete soundtrack remain today). He later starred in another MGM musical, New Moon, with Grace Moore, and The Cuban Love Song (1931), with Lupe Vélez. In 1935, he appeared in Metropolitan for 20th Century-Fox, a film known for showing Tibbett performing operatic songs on stage. He also starred in The Prodigal (1931), with Esther Ralston and Roland Young, where he sang "Without a Song." His final film was Under Your Spell in 1936. During the 1930s, Tibbett had a radio program in the United States sponsored by the Packard Motor Car Company. The company asked him to announce the Packard 120 on air and drive one. When the company wanted to sell less expensive cars, they encouraged him to add popular songs to his performances to increase sales. He also appeared on Your Hit Parade.

In 1936, Tibbett and violinist Jascha Heifetz founded the American Guild of Musical Artists, a labor union for solo performers. He led the guild for 17 years. His clear and strong support for artistic causes was uncommon at the time.

In January 1937, during a rehearsal for Richard Hageman’s opera Caponsacchi at the Met, Tibbett accidentally stabbed a long-time member of the chorus, Joseph Sterzini, during a fight scene, causing a small injury to Sterzini’s hand. Sterzini, who had high blood pressure, died later that day.

After his operatic career ended, Tibbett performed in musicals and plays in the early 1950s. He spent a summer in touring theater productions as the Reverend Davidson in Rain and played Captain Hook in a short-lived tour of the John Burrell staging of Peter Pan, which was created for Jean Arthur and featured a musical score by the young Leonard Bernstein. Veronica Lake played Peter. Most notably, Tibbett took over the role of Italian operatic bass Ezio Pinza in Fanny during its original run on Broadway.

Later years and death

In later years, Tibbett hosted a radio show that included historic recordings of operatic singers. He shared stories about his own experiences on stage. Due to severe arthritis and years of heavy drinking, he looked older than his age as his health worsened. He died on July 15, 1960, after hitting his head on a table when he fell in his apartment. The Time obituary described him as having a large, deep, and dramatically expressive voice that combined strong power with great flexibility. It noted that he left behind not only the sound of a great voice but also the memory of a performer who could perform both serious and popular music, showing a special connection between the two. He is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

Tibbett's operatic recordings made in the United States for the Victor Talking Machine Company / RCA Victor during the 1920s and 1930s are considered some of the best performances from that time. Many of these recordings are available on LP and CD re-issues. Dear Rogue: A Biography of the American Baritone Lawrence Tibbett, a detailed account of his life and career, was written by Hertzel Weinstat and Bert Wechsler and published in 1996 by Amadeus Press of Portland, Oregon.

Famous roles

Although known as a talented and attractive actor, Tibbett became famous mainly because he was considered one of the best baritones to perform at the Metropolitan Opera. His voice was strong and had a deep, rich sound similar to a bass voice. He could sing very loudly or very softly, showing a wide range of volume. He was especially well-known for his performances in operas by Verdi, including his first major role as Ford in Falstaff, the main character in Simon Boccanegra, and the role of Iago in Otello. He also played the menacing Scarpia in Puccini’s Tosca, the confident Escamillo in Bizet’s Carmen, and the strong Tonio in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci.

In addition, Tibbett performed leading roles in several American operas, such as Louis Gruenberg’s The Emperor Jones, which was based on a play by Eugene O’Neill. (He performed this role in blackface, as the character Brutus Jones is an African-American.) He also starred in Howard Hanson’s Merry Mount, as well as The King’s Henchman and Peter Ibbetson, operas by Deems Taylor. Tibbett sang the roles of Porgy and Jake in the first album of selections from George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, two roles typically performed by Black singers on stage. Gershwin was present during the recording sessions. Continuing this work, Tibbett also recorded Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II’s song Ol’ Man River from Show Boat.

Marston Records released a 10-CD collection of Tibbett’s recordings in March 2024.

Awards and portrayals

• Lawrence Tibbett was featured on United States postage stamps as part of the "Legends of American Music series," which honored opera singers.
• In the year of his death, Tibbett was named a posthumous member of the first group of people honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His star, located at 6300 Hollywood Boulevard, recognizes his work in the music industry. Although he was known for his role in early musical films, his star on the Walk of Fame celebrates his achievements as a recording artist.
• Tibbett allowed his Beverly Hills home to be used by mobster Bugsy Siegel at the time Siegel was killed on June 20, 1947. Tibbett is briefly shown as a character in the 1991 film Bugsy, though the actor who played him was shorter and thicker than Tibbett.
• A full-length biography of Tibbett, titled Dear Rogue by Hertzel Weinstat and Bert Wechsler, was published in 1996.