Goulet hospitalized, needs lung transplant

LAS VEGAS — Singer and actor Robert Goulet is heavily sedated and breathing through a respirator in a Los Angeles hospital while he awaits a lung transplant, his wife Vera told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

"He can hear me but he can’t respond,” Vera Goulet said of the 73-year-old crooner.

Vera Goulet, speaking by phone from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said the last time the couple spoke was two weeks ago when he was hospitalized in Las Vegas, where they live. That was before doctors inserted a breathing tube down Goulet’s throat and sedated him.

"He said, ’Just give me a new pair of lungs and I’ll hit the high notes until I’m 100,”’ said Vera Goulet, who spent their 25th anniversary at his bedside Oct. 17.

"I told him I loved him. He told me he loves me. He was ready to have the tube inserted. And he said, ’Just watch my vocal chords.”’

The singer fell ill when flying home to Las Vegas after performing at a Sept. 20 concert in Syracuse, N.Y., she said.

They initially assumed it was some kind of bug, but he got weaker until he had to be rushed to the hospital Sept. 30, she said.

Goulet was diagnosed with a form of pulmonary fibrosis that his official Web site described as a "rapidly progressive and fatal condition.” He was transported to Cedars-Sinai as a transplant patient Oct. 13.

Vera Goulet said doctors told her the planned lung transplant was the most successful operation of any transplant, with a success rate of 88 percent.

"God willing, if we proceed with this, our doctors feel that there’s no reason he will not have at least 15 years of life doing what he does, going back on stage and singing,” she said. "That’s very encouraging.”

Meanwhile, fans and performers have been calling and e-mailing from around the world, she said. Comedian Jerry Lewis called twice. Actress Suzanne Somers, whose home was endangered by wildfires in Southern California, has called and e-mailed several times. Harry Connick Jr. phoned on his way to Europe.

"Tony Orlando called and said, ’Give him a punch in the stomach for me,”’ she said.

Goulet, born to French-Canadian parents in Lawrence, Mass., has won acclaim for a Broadway career that took off after his debut performance as Sir Lancelot in "Camelot” in 1960.

He was a hit after making multiple appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show.” Sullivan labeled him the "American baritone from Canada,” where he had been a popular star in the 1950s, even hosting his own show on CBC-TV called "General Electric’s Showtime.”

He made his first professional appearance at age 16 with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.

Goulet won a Grammy Award in 1962 for Best New Artist and a Tony Award in 1968 for his role in "The Happy Time.”

Over the years, Goulet continued to perform onstage.

His illness forced the cancellation of planned performances in Denver and a commercial TV shoot, Vera Goulet said.

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On the Net:

Robert Goulet’s Official Web site, www.robertgoulet.com