Ron Holgate

Holgate, Ron (b. 1937), actor and singer. The rich‐voiced baritone was born in Aberdeen, South Dakota, and educated at Northwestern before studying for an opera career at the New England Conservatory and the Music Academy of the West. Holgate made his opera debut in Boston in 1958 but soon switched to the theatre, making his Broadway bow three years later. He first aroused interest as the pompous Roman officer Miles Gloriosus in the original A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), followed by such delightful performances as the boastful delegate Richard Henry Lee in 1776 (1969), the bigoted Polish colonel Stjerbinsky in The Grand Tour (1979), and the Italian opera star Tito Merelli in Lend Me a Tenor (1989).