Rod McKuen

While speaking at a meeting of the National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse in 1982, McKuen told a packed room of 600 people how he was sexually molested by an aunt and uncle when he was seven years old. He advises victimized children to "tell somebody immediately".

At the height of his popularity, his songs were recorded by a wide variety of artists, including The Kingston Trio, Bing Crosby, Jimmie Rodgers, The Smothers Brothers (Tom Smothers & Dick Smothers), Perry Como, Glenn Yarbrough, Oliver, and Frank Sinatra. The latter recorded an entire album of McKuen songs in 1969, entitled "A Man Alone." Soft rocker Terry Jacks had a number-one single in 1974 with McKuen's best-known song, "Seasons in the Sun.".

Although a favorite target of both critics and non-admirers, who have routinely dismissed his verse as not much above the level of greeting-card poetry, he is the most financially successful poet of all-time. At the height of his popularity (roughly 1967-1973), his books, such as "Listen to the Warm," "Stanyan Street and Other Sorrows," and "In Someone's Shadow," regularly appeared on the best-seller lists and sold in the millions, as did his albums, primarily for RCA Victor and Warner Brothers Records.

Portrayed one of the impostors on To Tell the Truth: Episode dated 18 June 1962 (1962). He was an impostor for gambler Donald Harris, who claimed never to have had a losing day at the roulette table. McKuen introduced himself as, "a published poet and a twist singer, currently appearing at the Versailles in New York.".

Developed his distinctively scratchy voice in the late 1950s when, as an aspiring rock 'n' roll singer, he had to make himself heard over an especially loud band, night after night, for weeks.

Rod McKuen was born on April 29, 1933 in Oakland, California, USA as Rodney Marvin McKuen.

He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 1501 Vine Street in Hollywood, California.