Harve Presnell, the handsome and brawny baritone, was born in Modesto, California in 1933. He spent part of his youth on a family ranch near Yosemite Valley, where he labored in the fields and discovered his voice at a young age. He became a soloist at his local church and graduated from Modesto High School.
Presnell received a USC sports scholarship but moved quickly to singing at Lotte Lehmann's Academy of the West. At the age of 21, he coveted the lead in the American premiere of Darius Milhaud's "David". Initially trained for an operatic career, he spent three seasons singing throughout Europe with roles in "La Forza del Destino", "Un ballo in Maschera", "The Marriage of Figaro" and "Tosca".
He shared the musical stage with Dorothy Kirsten and Leontyne Price and performed nationally, including New York's Carnegie Hall in "Carmina Burana". The legendary composer Meredith Willson happened to catch an earful of the gifted singer in a "Gershwin Night" concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and wrote the role of Johnny "Leadville" Brown in "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" specifically for him.
The Broadway musical, with Tammy Grimes as the spunky title heroine, was a resounding hit. Presnell wrapped his glorious tonsils around such sturdy songs as "Colorado, My Home" and "I'll Never Say No". The film version of "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" (1964) came out with a bankable film star, Debbie Reynolds, inhabiting the backwoods role.
There were precious few movie musicals for Presnell to sink his teeth into and he quickly faded from view. He tried adjusting to straight dramatics with the rugged western "The Glory Guys" (1965) and sang again in the highly unworthy teen frolic "When the Boys Meet the Girls" (1965) with Connie Francis.
By the 1970s, Presnell was finished in films but gamely kept his momentum with Keel-like stock and touring leads in such productions as "Camelot", "The Sound of Music", "Annie Get Your Gun" and "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever", among others.
In 1979, Presnell served as a replacement in the Broadway musical "Annie" as Daddy Warbucks and wound up staying employed as the blustery but bighearted moneybags for nearly 4 years on tour, also reprising the role in the failed 90s sequel, "Annie II: Miss Hannigan's Revenge" (1989),which was later reworked and re-titled "Annie Warbucks" (1992). All told, it is estimated that Harve played the tycoon role over 2,000 times.
More than 25 years had passed by the time Presnell returned to the movies as a brash and balding character actor. He struck pure gold as the implacable, ill-fated father-in-law of William H. Macy in the Coen Brothers' cult film hit, "Fargo" (1996). This success led to meaty roles in "Larger Than Life" (1996),"The Whole Wide World" (1996),"The Chamber" (1996),"Face/Off" (1997),"Saving Private Ryan" (1998) and "The Legend of Bagger Vance" (2000),to name a few.
Over the course of his career, he displayed a strong presence on TV as well with recurring roles on prime-time (Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993)) and daytime (Ryan's Hope (1975)).
