Introduction:
For millions of television viewers, Perry Como represented something increasingly rare in American entertainment: calmness. With his relaxed delivery, warm smile and effortless voice, he became known as one of the nicest men on television. Yet behind that famously easygoing image was a far more complicated man—one who sometimes resented fame, disliked several of his biggest hits and repeatedly dreamed of returning to the barber shop he had left behind.
Born in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1912 to Italian immigrant parents, Como was one of 13 children in a working-class family. Long before audiences knew his voice, he was cutting hair. As a boy, he swept floors at a local barber shop, eventually becoming so skilled that he built a successful business of his own.
Music, however, followed him everywhere. Como sang while cutting hair, performed at local events and earned a reputation as the town’s “singing barber.” In 1933, he made the decision that changed everything: he gave up a profitable barbering career to join bandleader Freddie Carlone for dramatically less money.
The gamble nearly failed.
Como struggled through years of touring, criticism and rejection. At one point, he was told he sounded too much like Bing Crosby. By the early 1940s, exhausted by life on the road, he seriously considered quitting entertainment altogether.
Then came “Till the End of Time” in 1945.
The song became a massive success and transformed Como into one of America’s biggest recording stars. Television soon followed. His relaxed approach made The Perry Como Show enormously popular, earning him multiple Emmy Awards and establishing a broadcasting style built on warmth rather than spectacle.
One unforgettable live-TV moment came in 1957, when swimmer Esther Williams experienced an embarrassing mishap during a pool sequence. Instead of allowing the moment to become the focus, Como ended the broadcast and jumped into the pool fully clothed—a simple act that reinforced his reputation as television’s ultimate gentleman.
But Como never completely embraced the machinery of celebrity. He openly disliked some songs selected for him, preferring standards and the Great American Songbook. Even enormously lucrative television contracts could feel like a “golden cage.” Awards and sales figures interested him far less than family life.
His marriage to Roselle Belline lasted 65 years, until her death in 1998. Como often acknowledged that his career had cost him precious time with his wife and children, and later in life he deliberately reduced his workload.
He died in Florida in May 2001 at 88.
Perry Como accumulated extraordinary commercial success across radio, records and television, yet the contradiction at the center of his life never disappeared. The world saw a superstar.
Como often seemed to see himself as something much simpler: a barber from Pennsylvania who happened to sing.