Richard Paul Kiley (March 31, 1922 – March 5, 1999) was an American stage, television, and film actor. He is best known for his voice work, as narrator of various documentary series, and for having played Don Quixote in the original 1965 production of the Broadway musical Man of La Mancha. Kiley was the first who sang and recorded The Impossible Dream, the hit song from the show. In the 1953 hit musical Kismet, he played the Caliph, and introduce...
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Richard Paul Kiley (March 31, 1922 – March 5, 1999) was an American stage, television, and film actor. He is best known for his voice work, as narrator of various documentary series, and for having played Don Quixote in the original 1965 production of the Broadway musical Man of La Mancha. Kiley was the first who sang and recorded The Impossible Dream, the hit song from the show. In the 1953 hit musical Kismet, he played the Caliph, and introduced the song Stranger in Paradise.
Kiley was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised Roman Catholic. He graduated from Mt. Carmel High School in 1940, and after a year at Loyola University Chicago he left to study acting at Chicago's Barnum Dramatic School. Following a stint in the Navy, he returned to Chicago working as an actor and announcer on radio before moving to New York City.
His work on stage included Richard Rodgers's first musical for which he wrote both music and lyrics, No Strings, the Buddy Hackett vehicle I Had a Ball, and the lead...
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