‘Moon River’ singer Andy Williams dies, performed in Vegas over 60 years

Andy Williams, the smooth crooner who worked Las Vegas at nearly every stage of his career, died Tuesday in Branson, Mo., after a yearlong battle with bladder cancer. He was 84.

Williams first sang at the El Rancho Vegas in 1947, when he was part of the Williams Brothers Quartet, and last brought his Christmas show to the Las Vegas Hilton in 2010.

Though Williams largely vanished from Las Vegas for a dozen years after he opened his own theater in Branson, his 63-year span of performing in Las Vegas is 20 years more than the years bracketing Frank Sinatra's history on the Strip.

Williams also was the headliner who opened Caesars Palace in 1966.

Williams' plaintive tenor voice is synonymous with "Moon River" and the Christmas standard "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year." His boyish features and clean-cut demeanor led to TV stardom in the 1960s.

He continued to perform into his 80s at the Moon River Theatre he built in Branson. He announced in November 2011 that he had been diagnosed with bladder cancer and vowed to return to performing the following year, his 75th in show business.

Williams became a major star in 1956, the same year as Elvis Presley, with the Sinatra-like swing number "Canadian Sunset." For a time, he was pushed into such Presley imitations as "Lips of Wine" and the No. 1 smash "Butterfly."

But he mostly stuck to what he called his "natural style" and kept it up throughout his career. In 1970, when even Sinatra had temporarily retired, Williams was in the top 10 with the theme from "Love Story," the Oscar-winning tearjerker.

Williams had 18 gold records and three platinum, was nominated for five Grammy awards and hosted the Grammy ceremonies for several years.

"The Andy Williams Show," which lasted in various formats through the 1960s and into 1971, won three Emmys and introduced the Osmond brothers to the national spotlight.

Movie songs became a specialty, including his signature "Moon River." The longing Johnny Mercer-Henry Mancini ballad was his most famous song, even though it was never released as a single.

Williams was asked to sing the tune during the 1962 Academy Awards show. Figuring the song was an Oscar shoo-in, he convinced Columbia records to rush-record an album, "Moon River & Other Great Movie Themes," in the six weeks before the broadcast.

"It sold half a million albums the next day" after the Oscar broadcast, he told the Review-Journal in 2010.

Williams recalled that soon after he took off as a solo act in 1957, the Flamingo booked him as a co-headliner with gravel-voiced comedian Joe E. Lewis, who was popular with Las Vegas gamblers beyond his national fame.

Williams was scheduled to close the show because of his presence on the radio. "I felt a little awkward because (Lewis) was a great star for so many years."

The comedian must have felt awkward too, because he ignored a 45-minute time limit and "stayed on for, like, two hours," Williams said.

"Afterward I asked him, 'Mr. Lewis, how would you like it if I went on first and you went on second?' "

Lewis answered, "I thought you'd see it that way, kid."

In 1960, a Parisian "Folies Bergere" showgirl named Claudine Longet caught the singer's eye. They were married for 14 years.

In 1976, Longet shot and killed her lover, skiing champion Spider Sabich. Longet said it was an accident and spent only a week in jail. Williams stood by her. He escorted her to the courthouse, testified on her behalf and provided support for her and their children, Noelle, Christian and Robert.

By 1966, Williams' variety show had made him big enough for him to open the 1,200-seat showroom at Caesars Palace. "Everybody was absolutely bombed," he recalled. "It was absolutely the wildest opening I ever saw in my life."

In a 2005 interview, he said, "They started serving drinks to the guests in the lobby. All these movie stars were there. The show kept getting pushed back and back and back. I went on around 11 o'clock and people were smashed. It was just a wild party. I came out and everyone was just yelling and talking."

He remembered the only way to get the crowd's attention was to begin an a capella rendition of "Danny Boy."

"The audience shushed themselves and then I had them," he said. "It was the only way I could get them quiet."

Williams remained part of the Caesars showroom rotation through 1979. But he stayed away from the Strip after opening the Moon River Theatre in Branson in 1992.

"It was sort of like building the Flamingo in the late '40s, building a great big beautiful theater in the middle of all this country stuff," he recalled in 2005.

It worked so well, Williams felt no need to return to Las Vegas until he brought his Christmas show to the Orleans Arena in 2004.

"I don't know if I was 25 years old that I would have chosen to come here, but it was right for me at the time and I love it," he said of his Branson life and home on Lake Tanecomo. "The back side is the lake and the front side is the golf course."

In an interview leading up to what turned out to be his final Las Vegas shows in 2010, Williams was optimistic about his performing future.

"I'm pretty sure that I'm going to keep doing it at least three more years, but you don't know what's going to happen," he said. "I don't know whether my health is going to be great. Right now, I feel great. Right now I feel like I can go another 10 years.

"Once it starts not being fun for me, then I'll want to quit. Really, that's the truth. Other than the Christmas show, we don't really make an awful lot of money."

He was born Howard Andrew Williams in Wall Lake, Iowa, on Dec. 3, 1927.

Williams began performing with his older brothers Dick, Bob and Don in the local Presbyterian church choir. Their father, postal worker and insurance man Jay Emerson Williams, was the choirmaster and the force behind his children's career.

When Andy Williams was 8, his father arranged for the kids to have an audition on Des Moines radio station WHO's Iowa Barn Dance. They were initially turned down but finally accepted. The show attracted attention from Chicago, Cincinnati and Hollywood. Another star at WHO was a young sportscaster named Ronald Reagan, who would later praise Williams as a "national treasure."

The brothers joined Bing Crosby in recording the hit "Swinging on a Star" in 1944 for Crosby's film "Going My Way," and Andy Williams, barely a teenager, was picked to dub Lauren Bacall's voice on a song, "To Have and Have Not," for the film. His voice stayed in the film until the preview, when it was cut because it didn't sound like Bacall's.

Later, the brothers worked with Kay Thompson. After three months of training, Thompson and the Williams Brothers broke in their show at the El Rancho Room in Las Vegas to a huge ovation.

Williams is survived by his wife, Debbie, and his three children.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@review journal.com or 702-383-0288.