Biographie

Retired completely in 1993 after the death of his beloved wife of 52 years, Jane Gordon.

Rejected by the US army, he volunteered as an ambulance driver for the British in North Africa; after the US joined the war, he served in the US army.

His son, Timothy Wayne, disappeared and was presumed drowned while canoeing with a friend near Yellowknife, in Canada's Northwest Territory, in August 1970. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police discovered an overturned canoe, two life jackets and two paddles but no bodies.

In 1947, the first year that Broadway's Tony Awards were presented, he won the Best Supporting or Featured Actor (Musical) Award for "Finian's Rainbow". He subsequently won a second Tony Award in 1954 as Best Actor (Dramatic) for "The Teahouse of the August Moon", and was also nominated in 1968 as Best Actor (Musical) for "The Happy Time".

He displayed his musical talents as co-star to Judy Garland on her 1955 television special. Singing and dancing, he took Fred Astaire's part with Judy in the reenactment of the "Couple of Swells" segment from Parade de printemps (1948).