Rod McKuen

Birth Name:

Rodney Marvin McKuen

Birth Place:

Oakland, California, United States

Profession

Soundtrack, Actor, Music department

Was elected as the president of the American Guild of Variety Artists
Read his poetry in San Francisco during the Beat era and sang folk songs at the Purple Onion club
During the Korean War, he worked as a newspaper columnist and propaganda script writer
Supported himself as a ranch hand, a surveyor, a railroad worker, a lumberjack, a rodeo cowboy, a stuntman and a radio disc jockey after running away from home
Quote: "It doesn't matter who you love, or how you love, but that you love․"
Quote: "Time may make us rugged, ragged round the edges, but know and understand that love is still the safest place to land․"
Though sometimes described as kitschy, his poetry earned a substantial following among young people in the 1960s, and he released such collections as "Stanyan Street and Other Sorrows," "Listen to the Warm" and "Lonesome Cities․"
A prolific songwriter, he recorded albums of soft pop music and wrote material for such greats as Frank Sinatra
An avid music and record collector, he amassed one of the world's largest private record collections
Started a collection of old and antique martini shakers and glasses

Fast Facts