We are sad to report the news today, that Harry Kullijian, husband of Broadway legend, Carol Channing, passed away on Monday in Southern California, just a few short days of his 92nd birthday.
Channing, performed the night before in 'A Carol Channing Christmas' at the Agua Caliente Resort & Casino in Rancho Mirage, California and the next day Kullijian collapsed at home, and died from what the Modesto Bee describes as an aneurysm related condition that he had been treated for two years prior.
Fans of Channing, and those lucky enough to have already seen Carol Channing: LARGER THAN LIFE, will recall that Channing made headlines in 2003 when she married her junior high school sweetheart, businessman Harry Kulijian after a 70 year separation.
Together, she and her husband, founded The Channing-Kullijian Foundation For The Arts, whose mission is to restore the arts to every public school in the nation and to ensure an arts education to every child in America. "We aren't trying to save the arts," said Channing. "We are using the arts to save our children." Channing and her husband, Kullijian had dedicated themselves to insuring an arts education for all children nationwide.
Talking to BroadwayWorld.com in January of this year about the foundation, both Kullijian and Channing were firm believers that the arts promote intelligence and creativity in other areas such and mathematics, science and history. Time and again Channing has said that the arts become a "fertilizer for the brain" and allow other areas of intelligence to flourish within a person's mind. "I don't care what specific kind of art you love, it motivates you, it inspires you, it improves your concentration level-everything is better when one is participating in the arts." What is so impressive about this couple's dedication to this project is that they are taking this project so very personally. Kullijian explained: "Carol and I are looking at all the children in the United States. We often say, ‘Those children are our children. They're all Americans.' They have to be uplifted. They have to experience music, literature, poetry, theater, sculpture and paintings. It's a crime that these things are falling to the wayside. Art is the mainstay of our souls."
There was utter conviction in the voice of Harry Kullijian when he said, "I believe that Carol Channing is the one person in this country who can say ‘Come on folks, lets get together with one voice-all these 501C3's-let's get together and make this happen because the future of this country is at stake."
Carol Channing has been a Broadway star since stopping the show in the 1948 Broadway revue, Lend an Ear. The following year, she landed on the cover of Time Magazine and won international acclaim her riotous performance as Lorelei Lee in the musical, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Her Broadway appearances included Show Girl, The Vamp, Wonderful Town, The Millionairess and Four on a Garden. In 1964, she created the role of Dolly Gallagher Levi in Hello, Dolly!, winning a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. She would play the role of Dolly over 5,000 times throughout the world, without missing a performance. Channing also received a Special Tony Award in 1968 and a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 1995.
Channing received an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe Award for her performance as Muzzy in Thoroughly Modern Millie. Her other films include Paid in Full, The First Traveling Saleslady, Skidoo, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Her TV specials include "Broadway at the Hollywood Bowl," "Carol Channing and Pearl Bailey on Broadway" and the White Queen in "Alice Through the Looking Glass". Other credits include appearances on "What's My Line?" "I've Got a Secret," "Password," "Hollywood Squares"; variety shows, including "The Dean Martin Show," "The Red Skelton Show," "The Milton Berle Show," "Rowen & Martin's Laugh-In," "The Carol Burnett Show," "The Muppet Show," as well as episodes of Playhouse 90, "The Love Boat," "Magnum P.I." "The Nanny," "Touched By an Angel," "The Drew Carey Show" and "Family Guy".
