Chet R. Allen (May 6, 1939 – June 17, 1984) was an American child actor known for his role as Amahl in Gian Carlo Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors, the first opera written for television, which he made with the NBC Opera Theatre.

Allen was born in Chillicothe, Ohio, and later moved to Columbus, Ohio. At the time he was selected as Amahl, Allen was a soprano in the Columbus Boychoir, founded in Columbus. He reprised the role of Amahl in April 1952 with the New York City Opera, conducted by Thomas Schippers.

Chet Allen

In 1953, Allen starred with Dan Dailey in the film Meet Me at the Fair in the role of 14-year-old Tad Bayliss. That same year, he played the young teenager Jerry Bonino in the short-lived NBC series Bonino, starring Ezio Pinza as a recently widowed Italian-American opera singer Babbo Bonino, undertaking the rearing of his eight children. Mary Wickes co-starred as Martha the housekeeper.

Chet Allen

Death

In 1984, at the age of forty-five, Allen died by suicide by taking five times the fatal dosage of an anti-depressant.

Chet Allen

References

External links

1939 births

1984 suicides

1984 deaths

20th-century American male actors

20th-century American male opera singers

American male child actors

American male film actors

American male television actors

Boy sopranos

Drug-related suicides in Ohio

Male actors from Ohio

People from Chillicothe, Ohio

Male actors from Columbus, Ohio

Singers from Ohio

Classical musicians from Ohio