Lawrence Mervil Tibbett (November 16, 1896 – July 15, 1960) was a famous American opera singer and recording artist who also performed as a film actor and radio personality. A baritone, he sang leading roles with the Metropolitan Opera in New York more than 600 times from 1923 to 1950. He performed diverse musical
theatre roles, including Captain Hook in Peter Pan in a touring show. He was among the first operatic personalities to perform "popular" music.Born Lawrence Mervil Tibbet (the extra "t" was added when he signed his first Metropolitan contract), he was raised in Los Angeles and started singing for money at an early age in church choirs and at funerals. Following his 1915 high school graduation he served in the US Merchant Marine during World War I, then returned home where he sang at silent movie theatres.
Tibbett made his first recordings for the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1926. In the early 1930s, Tibbett also appeared in movies. His Hollywood sojourn proved brief, although he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his first film,
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The Rogue Song, a 1930 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production with Laurel & Hardy, shot in two-color Technicolor (only a few minutes of footage of the film, as well as the complete soundtrack, is known to survive today).
The Rogue Song, a 1930 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production with Laurel & Hardy, shot in two-color Technicolor (only a few minutes of footage of the film, as well as the complete soundtrack, is known to survive today).He was also seen in "New Moon" (1930) with Grace Moore and 1935's "Metropolitan" while becoming a regular on the concert stage and on the radio with Packard automobile commercials and frequent appearances on "Your Hit Parade".
Apparently a rather rude and unpleasant man, this quality was only exacerbated by his steadily worsening fondness for drink, with multiple tales told of him onstage intoxicated, the entire stage reeking on the occasions when he was partnered with the alcoholic Swedish tenor Jussi Bjorling; in one such incident the Bulgarian soprano Ljuba Welitsch grew tired of his ways and repeatedly kicked him after "killing" him at the end of Act II of "Tosca", while another time he refused to allow a young Leonard Warren to sing Ford opposite his Falstaff, saying "I didn't want him doing to me what I did to Scotti". 
Plagued by severe arthritis and years of drinking problems, he aged prematurely as his health worsened. He died on July 15, 1960, after hitting his head on a table during a fall in his apartment.
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The Time obituary said of him: "Tibbett had a big, bronze-like, dramatically eloquent voice that combined ringing power with remarkable agility ... he left behind not only the echoes of a great voice but the memory of a performer who could feel equally at home with high art and popular entertainment, suggesting that there is a magical link between the two." He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
The Time obituary said of him: "Tibbett had a big, bronze-like, dramatically eloquent voice that combined ringing power with remarkable agility ... he left behind not only the echoes of a great voice but the memory of a performer who could feel equally at home with high art and popular entertainment, suggesting that there is a magical link between the two." He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
(Edited from Wikipedia and Bob Hufford bio)
This clip is from "Metropolitan," the year 1935. It starred Mr. Tibbett, Virginia Bruce, Alice Brady and Cesar Romero. It was very well received, and apparently the 1st production by Daryl F. Zanuck for Twentieth Century Fox. It opened at Radio City Music Hall!