When I first started this site I didn't even know if Ivor was still alive or not, as I hadn't heard anything about him for quite a while. His CD, 'The Best of Ivor Emmanuel' has been in my record collection for several years now and is still currently available for purchase at Amazon .
I was enjoying listening to this CD one day and wondering what had become of Ivor, so I searched to see if there was any Ivor Emmanuel presence on MySpace. I found none, so I decided to go ahead and do it myself. I later found out, around the same time as I started this site up, that very sadly he had recently died, so this site is now my personal tribute to a wonderful man with a uniquely beautiful singing voice.
If you remember the wonderful voice of Ivor Emmanuel, the chances are that you, like me, are possibly in one of the rarest group of people on MySpace.....the "over-50s"!
I was personally first smitten by Ivor Emmanuel as a teenager, when I saw him on TV. He used to appear on Sundays, in what was then the 'wasteland' of Sunday Evening broadcasting known as the'God Slot'. Once a month he appeared singing on the Welsh TV programme "Land of Song" where he sang in Welsh with a children's choir. I thought that he was a very good-looking man indeed and he brightened up many a tedious Sunday evening with his fantastic voice, beaming smile and twinkling eyes. I am not Welsh and at that time I didn't know any Welsh language at all, but the programme always closed with the same words, which were the only words of Welsh I knew ... 'Nos Da' and I always said 'Nos Da' back to the screen!
I think it says a lot about the strength of Ivor's personality that, although I couldn't understand a word he was saying, I always remained riveted to the screen whenever he appeared!
Ivor later went on to play his memorable part in Zulu
but I had already fallen for him long before that!
I did once have the very good fortune to meet him on a train when I was travelling from London to Bristol. It was one of the old 'corridor' trains and we passed 'belly to belly' in the corridor. I recognised him at once and became very embarrassed and bashful, but he was the perfect gentleman and made a little joke about the whole thing. I wish now that I had been forward enough to have asked for his autograph!
Diolch yn fawr
Sue
IVOR's OBITUARY from the BBC's website, 20th July 2007
ZULU ACTOR IVOR EMMANUEL DIES AGED 80
Ivor Emmanuel, renowned for his rendition of Welsh song Men of Harlech in the classic film Zulu, has died.
He was born in 1927, in Pontrhydyfen, near Port Talbot, the same village as fellow actor Richard Burton.
The Hollywood star helped give him his theatrical break, and he became a popular TV name in the 1950s.
He will probably be best remembered for 1964's Zulu, showing the British Army, many of them Welsh, defying an attack at Rorke's Drift in South Africa.
Roles on Broadway followed and he made guest appearances on shows such as Morecambe and Wise and Benny Hill.
Emmanuel began his working life in the mines and steelworks of south Wales after a stray German bomb killed his father, mother and sister during World War II.
At the age of 20 he unsuccessfully auditioned for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.
Not long after, Richard Burton, who was two years older, helped him win a part in Oklahoma in London's West End, which launched his career.
A leading role in the Welsh language music programme Gwlad y Gan (Land of Song) in the late 1950s helped give him a large following.
But to modern audiences he will probably be best remembered for the film Zulu which dramatised the 1879 battle for Rorke's Drift.
At a crucial moment, as the British troops wait for another onslaught, he leads them in a stirring performance of Men of Harlech to counteract the Zulu war chants.
The film was produced by and starred fellow Welshman Stanley Baker, whose widow Ellen said: "It is a terribly sad day".
"It was Ivor who held Zulu together - he was the lynchpin and I just adored him. He was the sweetest most gentle man."
Richard Burton's niece Sian Owen said: "He was renowned for his voice.
"It was amazing with Ivor - even though he was a big star in his own right he never really realised it, which is what made him even more charming."
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