Now, keep up to date with daily feeds of newly posted stories about America's Seniors...click on the box to the left

Harry Connick, Jr.’s ‘A Holiday Celebration’ at The Fabulous Fox for one performance

Over the past two decades, Harry Connick, Jr. has proven to be among the world’s most successful and multi-talented artists. 

Connick first reached a mass audience as a pianist, singer and bandleader, securing his place in the public eye as a renaissance man and versatile entertainer.

 His love of music and performing dates back to his childhood in New Orleans, where he studied piano with such luminaries as James Booker and Ellis Marsalis. 

He first performed publicly at age five, appeared on his first jazz recording at age ten, and released his self-titled major label debut for Columbia Records at 19, only a year after his high school graduation and his move to New York City.

Connick achieved widespread success as a musician when director Rob Reiner asked him to contribute the score to his 1989 smash When Harry Met Sally, leading to Connick's first multi-platinum album (also his first big band recording.)  In the ‘90s, the full scope of Connick’s artistry emerged. 

His albums featured original instrumental and vocal music (Lofty’s Roach Soufflé and We are in Love, respectively), explored funk (She and Star Turtle) and romantic balladry (To See You), and then pulled all of these strands together in the decade-ending big band tour de force Come by Me. 

Recent years have seen further triumphs, including his Grammy-winning reflection on favorite music of his youth, Songs I Heard, and his blockbuster hit albums Harry for the Holidays, a Christmas classic, a subsequent collection of ballads, Only You and the 2007 release of Oh, My NOLA, an album of New Orleans-inspired music, and the Marsalis Music companion album of instrumentals by Connick’s big band, Chanson du Vieux Carre. 

At the same time, Connick has displayed his instrumental prowess in more intimate settings, a goal realized with his Connick on Piano series recordings for Marsalis Music which include the releases Other Hours, by Connick’s quartet, and Occasion, Connick’s duo encounter with Branford Marsalis. 

Connick has also built a successful film career, appearing both on screen and soundtracks. 

After making his acting debut in Memphis Belle in 1990, he has also appeared in Little Man Tate, Copycat, Independence Day, Hope Floats, John Grisham’s Mickey, and William Friedkin’s Bug.  His latest role in P.S., I Love You finds him cast opposite two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank.

= In 2009 he will co-star with another Oscar winning actress, Renee Zellweger, in Chilled in Miami.   His music has also contributed to the success of such films as Godfather III, Sleepless in Seattle and The Mask. 

As a television performer, Connick has starred in two holiday specials built around his best selling holiday albums When My Heart Finds Christmas (CBS) and Harry for the Holidays (NBC), and two Great Performances/PBS concert specials Swingin’ Out Live and Harry Connick, Jr.: Only You In Concert for which he won a 2004 Emmy.  He teamed with IDT Entertainment (producers of the The Simpsons) on The Happy Elf, a one-hour 3D animated holiday TV special which aired on NBC and was released on DVD during the 2005 holiday season. 

The story is based on his original children’s song from the best selling Sony/Columbia Harry for the Holidays release. 

In addition, he starred opposite Glenn Close in the ABC TV adaptation of the musical South Pacific and played the recurring role of Dr. Leo Markus on the NBC series Will & Grace. 

In October of 2008 Connick will star in the Lifetime Television movie Living Proof as Dr. Dennis Slamon, the UCLA doctor who developed the life saving breast cancer drug, Herceptin 2.

Connick made his Broadway theatrical stage debut in the 2006 revival of The Pajama Game as Sid Sorokin to sold-out audiences, rave reviews, and nominations for Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League awards for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical.  The Pajama Game received the 2006 Tony Award for Best Musical Revival. 

However, Connick is no stranger to the New York theater scene.  His concert production Harry Connick, Jr. and His Orchestra - Live on Broadway, directed by Joe Layton was produced in 1990 at the Lunt-Fontaine Theatre. 

And in 2002, he received a Tony nomination for Best Original Score for Thou Shalt Not, directed by Susan Stroman at the Plymouth Theatre.  During the 2007 holiday season, the Coterie Theatre in Kansas City, MO was the first regional theatre in the US to stage The Happy Elf, a new family musical composed by Mr. Connick. 

In 2008, this musical will open at the First Stage Children’s Theater in Milwaukee, WI. 

As a New Orleans native, Harry Connick, Jr., is deeply attuned to the devastation caused by Katrina along the Gulf Coast. 

Connick teamed up with Branford Marsalis, and the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity to create “Musicians’ Village,” a community in the Upper Ninth Ward which will consist of hundreds of single-family homes for musicians and other qualifying homeowner families as well as elder-friendly duplexes. 

Its centerpiece will be the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, a performance, instruction and recording complex, dedicated to the education and development of homeowners and others who will live nearby. 

All of these achievements – not to mention his album sales of over 25 million, his three Grammy awards, Emmy award, and Tony nominations – reflect a creative energy that make Harry Connick Jr. unique in the world of contemporary entertainment.