Howard Keel, born Harold Clifford Keel (April 13, 1919 – November 7, 2004) was an American actor who starred in many of the classic film musicals of the 1950s.
Born in Gillespie, Illinois, to Navyman-turned-coalminer Homer Keel and his wife, Grace Osterkamp Keel, young Harry spent his childhood in poverty. After his father's death in 1930, he and his mother moved to California, where he graduated from Fallbrook High School at the age of 17 and took various odd-jobs until finally settling at Douglas Aircraft Company, where he became a traveling representative.

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