Douglas McPhail(1914-1944)
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Although his career was short-lived, McPhail was fortunate enough to
have appeared in some of the finest musicals and operettas of the late
30s. Jeanette MacDonald took an early interest in this handsome baritone, when he
performed in the chorus of San Francisco and other of her pictures. The
studio signed him on at nineteen as the back-up for Nelson Eddy in The Girl
of the Golden West (1938), although McPhail did not get screen time.
His career flared briefly in 1939 and 1940, when he appeared with
MacDonald, Judy Garland, Eleanor Powell and future wife Betty Jaynes in a series
of musical pictures. Although the studio groomed him as the next Nelson
Eddy, it failed to recognize the changing interests of the moviegoing
public, who tired of his style of singing. His marriage failed, and he
took to drink. Roles dried up, and after an earlier suicide attempt,
McPhail succeeded in poisoning himself on December 6,
1944.
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