Quick Facts
Capricorn
Biography
Bruce Yarnell (December 28, 1935 – November 30, 1973) was an American actor who co-starred in the second, final season (1961–1962) of NBC's two-season Western television series Outlaws, set in the lawless Oklahoma Territory. He was also a noted Broadway and opera baritone.
Television
Yarnell played Deputy U.S. Marshal Chalk Breeson, in the second season of Outlaws. Yarnell's principal co-star, Don Collier (born 1928), played Marshal Will Foreman. Slim Pickens played the role of "Slim". In the first season, Barton MacLane (1902–1969) had appeared as Marshal Frank Caine, and the episodes had been related from the outlaws' viewpoint. In the second season, the narrative reflected the judgment of the lawmen.
After Outlaws was cancelled, Yarnell appeared in 1963 as Tom Kidwell in the NBC rodeo drama The Wide Country, and in 1964–1965 as Muley Jones in two episodes of NBC's powerhouse western Bonanza. In 1965, he appeared as Captain Jeb Winslow in one episode of CBS's Hogan's Heroes military comedy. He also guest starred in CBS's The Smothers Brothers Show. His last television role was as Little John in the 1968 series The Legend of Robin Hood, not to be confused with a British series of the same name seven years thereafter.
Broadway
Prior to his television career, Yarnell made his 1960 Broadway 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 Broadway in the 1966 Lincoln Center revival of Annie Get Your Gun, in whichhe played the marksman Frank E. 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 life
Yarnell was born in Los Angeles, California, and graduated from Hollywood High School. Bruce Yarnell married Francesca Lorraine Chadwick (born in Las Vegas NV, on Dec 15, 1937) in 1958 in Los Angeles, and the couple had three daughters together before their 1971 divorce: Theresa Marie Yarnell, Waverly Lorraine Yarnell and Heather Anne Yarnell. Yarnell married the singer and voice instructor Joan Patenaude (born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on September 12, 1941) in July 1972, 16 months before his death.
Death
A week after finishing an engagement as Marcello in La 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 instituted the Bruce Yarnell Scholarship to honor young baritones. As stated above, Yarnell made a successful transition from Broadway to opera and sang principal roles at the San Francisco Opera from 1971 until his death. His interpretations of Dr. 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.