Georges Guétary

Born Lambros Worloou on 8 February 1915 in Alexandria, Egypt, Georges Guétary died on 13 September 1997 in Mougins (Alpes-Maritimes), France. Over a career spanning more than five decades he worked as a singer, dancer and revue performer who embodied the dashing, romantic ideal of the Latin lover. Audiences across Europe and America responded warmly to his inexhaustible vitality, affable temperament and playful charm.

Of Greek parentage, he arrived in Paris in 1934 at his father’s direction, ostensibly to pursue commercial studies; instead he followed his longstanding passion for music by enrolling at the academy directed by violinist Jacques Thibaud and pianist Alfred Cortot. Vocal instruction from Ninon Vallin prepared him for his first stage appearance in 1937 at the Européen, where he performed with Jo Bouillon And His Orchestra. Mistinguett, present that night, promptly engaged him for her own show at the Casino de Paris. Recordings soon followed—several made with accordionist Fredo Gardoni—alongside solo tours in revues and operettas.

During World War II he adopted the professional name Georges Guétary and relocated to Toulouse, taking employment as a maître d’hôtel while still singing whenever possible. After the liberation he returned to Paris and headlined a succession of operettas, establishing himself as a major recording star and appearing in several Gilles Grangier films throughout the 1950s.

In November 1946 Guétary travelled back from Switzerland to audition for British impresario Charles B. Cochran, then scouting talent in Paris for the new musical Bless The Bride. Despite speaking almost no English he was cast opposite Lizbeth Webb and delighted audiences nightly with numbers from Vivian Ellis and A.P. Herbert’s score, among them “Ma Belle Marguerite,” “This Is My Lovely Day” and “I Was Never Kissed Before.” He next joined Frances Day in Robert Nesbitt’s West End revue Latin Quarter (1949) before making his Broadway debut in Arms And The Girl (1950), the musical adaptation of Lawrence Langner and Armina Marshall’s The Pursuit Of Happiness. Although the production closed after roughly four months, Guétary’s notices earned him the role of the “older man,” Henri Baurel, in Vincente Minnelli’s An American In Paris—his sole American film. Screenwriter Alan Jay Lerner had originally fashioned the part for Maurice Chevalier, yet various difficulties led to Guétary’s selection instead. Sharing the screen with Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron, he delivered standout renditions of “(I’ll Build A) Stairway To Paradise,” “Love Walked In,” “’S Wonderful” (with Kelly) and “By Strauss” (with Kelly and Oscar Levant), while offering a reflective take on “Nice Work If You Can Get It.”

A few years afterward he playfully acknowledged the arrival of rock ’n’ roll with the single “Georges Viens Danser Le Rock ’N’ Roll,” underscoring his enduring youthful outlook. He continued to appear regularly on stage; at the age of eighty he returned for a final concert at the Bobino music hall in Paris. The largely elderly female audience that had admired him for decades responded with rapt enthusiasm, and he fulfilled their expectations completely.