Actor, singer, author and songwriter ("Exodus") Pat Boone was educated at David Lipscombe College, North Texas State College and Columbia University (from which he received a Bachelor of Science degree). His career in entertainment began when he emceed a teenage talent show on radio and television in Nashville, Tennessee. He won a Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour amateur show, and an Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts show. His first professional recording was made in 1955, and he joined ASCAP in 1961, with Ernest Gold being his chief musical collaborator. Over the years he has had many hit songs ("Moody River", "Speedy Gonzales", "Bernadine") and appeared in a string of films in the 1950s and 1960s, some successful and some not. His other song compositions include "Lover's Lane" and "The Main Attraction". He has served as a board member of the Northeastern Institute for Christian Education.


His brother, Nick Boone, also had a popular music career under the name Nick Todd. Has four daughters: Cherry Boone, Linda Boone, Debby Boone and Laura Boone. Direct descendent of Daniel Boone. Raised in Denton, Texas, USA. Boone was heavily criticized in the 1950s, and since, for singing homogenized, sanitized versions of rock-'n'-roll songs written and/or popularized by Afro-American artists. For example, when he recorded Fats Domino's "Ain't That a Shame" (his first big hit) in 1956, he initially insisted upon changing the title to "Isn't That a Shame", feeling that the incorrect grammar of the original title would be a bad influence on young people. He was overruled. On another occasion, at around that same time, he succeeded in removing all of the more suggestive lyrics from his cover of Little Richard's "Long Tall Sally." On that occasion, he changed the original's, "I saw Uncle John with Long Tall Sally,/He saw Aunt Mary comin' and he ducked back in the alley" to, "Long Tall Sally's got a lot on the ball,/And nobody cares if she's long and tall." One of the owners of the American Basketball Association's Oakland Oaks from 1967-69. He sold his interest in the team and it moved to Washington, DC. His recording of "A Wonderful Time Up There" in 1958 became the first million-selling record with religious lyrics. His 1962 hit song "Speedy Gonzalez" featured the unmistakable vocal impression of Mel Blanc on the recording (Blanc improvised all of his lines). In each of his cinematographic contracts there was a term specifying that kissing his partner could not be forced on him by the director due to his religious convictions. He is a staunch supporter of the Republican Party, and campaigned for George W. Bush in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. In 2006 he and his wife Shirley Boone donated $3 million to Pepperdine University for the Graduate School of Education and Psychology Center for the Family. He badly wanted to play the lead role in The Sand Pebbles (1966), but director Robert Wise wanted Steve McQueen instead. Was personally invited by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to perform at his inaugural ball on 20 January 1957.