Lee Halliday, which is written with an i, had inspired Johnny Hallyday his stage name: he died on Tuesday at the age of 95.
The “father of heart” of Johnny Hallyday is dead: Lee Halliday died on Tuesday at the age of 95, AFP announced, citing a source close to the family. American singer and dancer of music hall, he brought on stage the very young Jean-Philippe Smet, then only 13 years old. The future “Youth Idol” will even borrow his name, with a y, becoming the Johnny Hallyday that everyone knows.
Lee Halliday was born Lemoine “Lee” Gardner Ketcham in 1927 in Oklahoma, USA, and quickly became an artist, under the pseudonym Lee Halliday. If he is known to be the “father” of Johnny Hallyday, he is in fact his cousin by marriage, after his marriage to Desta Mar, cousin of the French rocker. The latter, abandoned by his very young father, made Lee Halliday his adoptive father, growing up under his wing.
Johnny Hallyday was originally called as the American, with an “i”, but an error on the cover of his first 45 rpm, in 1960, will decide otherwise and the “y” will remain. Lee Halliday will remain the first producer and artistic agent of Johnny Hallyday. “There are a lot of people to whom I owe a lot of things, but Lee Halliday, he is surely the person in my life who served as my father, who raised me, who taught me a little dance”, remembered in particular the Taulier in the documentary Johnny by Johnnyreleased in 2022.