Paul Jabara | |
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Jabara on balcony of the Palace Theatre, London in 1972
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Born |
Brooklyn, New York City, United States |
January 31, 1948
Died | September 29, 1992 Los Angeles, California |
(aged 44)
Occupation | Actor, singer, songwriter |
Website | http://www.pauljabara.com |
Paul Jabara, also known as Paul Frederick Jabara , (January 31, 1948 – September 29, 1992) was an American actor, singer, and songwriter of Lebanese ancestry, born in Brooklyn, New York City. He wrote Donna Summer's "Last Dance" from Thank God It's Friday (1978) and Barbra Streisand's song "The Main Event/Fight" from The Main Event (1979). He cowrote The Weather Girls hit, "It's Raining Men" with Paul Shaffer. Jabara's cousin and close friend Jad Azkoul is also a Lebanese-American musician specialising in classical guitar.
Jabara was in the original cast of the stage musicals Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar. He took over the role of Frank-N-Furter in the Los Angeles Production of The Rocky Horror Show when Tim Curry left the production to film the movie version in England. He appeared in John Schlesinger's 1969 film Midnight Cowboy, as one of the attendees at the counterculture party, and in Schlesinger's 1975 film The Day of the Locust, where he sang the production number "Hot Voo-Doo". In the 1978 film Thank God It's Friday he played the role of Carl, the lovelorn and nearsighted disco goer, and he also contributed as a singer on two tracks on the original soundtrack album. In 1981 Jabara starred in yet another John Schlesinger film, the comedy Honky Tonk Freeway, as truck driver/songwriter T. J. Tupus, hauling lions and a rhino.