George Osmond, the patriarch who launched the singing and entertainment careers of the Osmond family 45 years ago during a fortuitous trip to Disneyland, has died. He was 90.
Osmond, who had been in failing health, died Tuesday of complications related to old age at his home in Provo, Utah, said family spokesman Kevin Sasaki.
Less than a day before, his daughter Marie Osmond, who is a contestant on "Dancing With the Stars," dedicated her latest performance on the ABC TV show to her parents. Her mother, Olive, died in 2004 at 79.
"He was a man of integrity, of honor. He was the best man I've ever known," a tearful Marie told "Entertainment Tonight" on Tuesday before boarding a plane for Utah with her brother Donny.
Donny, who recently has been a correspondent on "Entertainment Tonight," said of his parents' influence in their lives, "We stuck together. Stayed together as a family. My hat's off to my parents."
Her father always wanted a big family, Marie once said, and the Osmonds had nine children.
George was a singer who taught four of his sons -- Alan, Wayne, Merrill and Jay -- to perform as a barbershop quartet. When he failed to get his sons an audition with "The Lawrence Welk Show," Osmond took the youngsters to Disneyland as a consolation prize.
After giving an impromptu concert at the park, the brothers were hired to perform regularly. Within weeks, the father of singer Andy Williams saw their act in Anaheim and recommended them to his son. They debuted on "The Andy Williams Show" in 1962. About a year later, a 6-year-old Donny joined the group.
In an interview last year with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Donny recalled how his father -- a devout Mormon and strict disciplinarian -- had once upbraided Frank Sinatra after Sinatra's daughter Nancy used inappropriate language during a 1969 rehearsal in Las Vegas in front of the Osmond brothers.
With the Jackson 5 as role models, the brothers began to broaden their musical range and had a hit in 1971 with "One Bad Apple (Don't Spoil the Whole Bunch)," the beginning of about a decade in the spotlight. Marie began appearing with the group in the 1973.
In 1976, the "Donny and Marie" variety show on ABC featured the teenagers and -- at the stars' insistence -- their siblings, including the youngest brother, Jimmy.
The family motto was "all for one" but George Osmond also had declared, "We don't care which Osmond is out front -- as long as it's an Osmond," the London Daily Mail reported in 2003.
