orig. Lawrence Mervil Tibbet
born Nov. 16, 1896, Bakersfield, Calif., U.S.
died July 15, 1960, New York, N.Y.
U.S. baritone.
He performed as a singing actor before moving into opera. After his 1923 Metropolitan Opera debut, his first major success came in 1925, when he played Ford in Giuseppe Verdi 's Falstaff . Over the next several years he sang most of the leading baritone roles at the Metropolitan, continuing with the company for 27 seasons. He also starred in several musical films and appeared on the popular radio show Your Hit Parade .