Career
He was also a noted and opera baritone. Prior to his television career, Yarnell made his 1960 debut as Sir Lionel in the original cast of Camelot and soon left that show to star opposite Cyril Ritchard in The Happiest Girl in the World. He returned to in the 1966 Lincoln Center revival of Annie Get Your Gun, in which he played the marksman Frank East. Butler, husband and manager of Annie Oakley, opposite Ethel Merman, who was twenty-seven years Yarnell"s senior, in the starring role.
Yarnell"s rich, burnished baritone may be heard on the original cast recordings of those three shows.
Personal Yarnell was born in Los Angeles, California, and graduated from Hollywood High School. Death
A week after finishing an engagement as Marcello in Louisiana Boheme at the San Francisco Opera, Yarnell and two passengers, David and Teri Wirsching, were killed when the Beechcraft Musketeer that Yarnell was piloting crashed in Los Angeles County, California, near Gorman.
Yarnell had radioed prior to the crash that he had lost electrical power and was disoriented. Legacy
Yarnell"s widow, the singer and voice instructor Joan Patenaude-Yarnell (born in Ottawa, Canada, on September 12, 1941), instituted the Bruce Yarnell Scholarship to honor young baritones.
As stated above, Yarnell made a successful transition from to opera and sang principal roles at the San Francisco Opera from 1971 until his death.
His interpretations of Doctor Falke in SFO"s Die Fledermaus and Sharpless in SFO"s Madama Butterfly are preserved on rare recordings. Yarnell also produced two solo albums, House of the Lord and Bruce Yarnell Sings. Joan Yarnell has been a faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music since 1997.