Legendary singer Johnny Mathis announces final performance before retirement
The 89-year-old romantic singer, behind hits like 'Wonderful, Wonderful' and 'It's Not For Me To Say,' was scheduled to continue touring throughout the summer. However, he has now canceled all concerts from June 2025 onwards.
'As many of you may already be aware, Johnny Mathis is approaching his 90th birthday this year,' a statement shared from his Facebook account read. 'So, it's with sincere regret that due to Mr. Mathis' age and memory issues which have accelerated, we are announcing his retirement from touring & live concerts.'
'At this time, the 2025 Voice of Romance Tour dates will continue, with the final concert currently scheduled on May 18, 2025 in Englewood, New Jersey at the Bergen PAC,' the statement continued.
'Johnny Mathis & his entire staff send their heartfelt gratitude to all Mathis Fans worldwide for your continued love & support of his music. It's truly been 'Wonderful, Wonderful,'' it concluded.
Mathis' final concert brings an end to an incredible singing career that has spanned over six decades. In that time, he's recorded 73 studio albums, 10 of which are certified Gold for having sold 500,000 units each. In total, he's gone on to sell more than 360 million records worldwide, according to The National Museum of African American History & Culture.
His most popular album, Johnny's Greatest Hits, was once the record holder for the longest-running album to chart on the Billboard 200. It remained on the chart for 490 weeks from its 1958 release until 1968. It was later dethroned by Pink Floyd's 1973 album, The Dark Side of the Moon.
In 2003, Mathis was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He's also nabbed five nominations, with his first one being in 1960 for Best Vocal Performance Single Record Or Track, Male for his song 'Misty.'
Mathis is also known for his Christmas albums. In fact, his latest album, released in 2023, is titled Christmas Time Is Here and features covers of several holiday classics, including 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town' and 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.'
Speaking to The Independent in 2008 about aging, Mathis said the best age to be was 'the age you are. When you get my age, you're really quite happy.'
'Make sure your life encompasses everything and everybody,' he added.
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In the course of that career, according to The Hollywood Reporter, he 'broke ribs, arms, wrists and vertebrae, detached his triceps, suffered concussions and had his hips replaced and his spine fused'. But, he said: 'You never told anyone you were hurt … because they always had another guy who could fit the clothes.' Ronald Reid Rondell was born — quite literally — in Hollywood, California, in 1937. His father, Ronald, a native of Naples in Italy, was himself a stuntman and actor. His mother, Ruth, had worked as a secretary in the movie industry. As a boy, he would visit film sets with his father and worked as an extra in the film Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair (1952). At North Hollywood High School he excelled at high diving and gymnastics. During a spell in the US navy in the late 1950s he served as a scuba diver and mine clearer. Thereafter he worked as an extra in various films before following his father into stunt work and serving as a double for various well-known actors. His first stunts were for the television series Soldiers of Fortune, which ran from 1955 to 1957. He appeared in Spartacus (1960). He toppled from a flaming 100ft pole in the Mayan adventure film Kings of the Sun (1963). His 5ft 10in, 13st body was filmed flying upside down over a cannon in the civil war movie Shenandoah (1965). For the spy thriller Ice Station Zebra (1968) he drove an exploding car. Later he worked on numerous television series including Baywatch, Charlie's Angels and Dynasty, and dozens of movies including Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Blazing Saddles (1974), and Thelma & Louise (1991). In 1970, as the age of westerns gave way to action movies, he and two other stuntmen, Hal Needham and Glenn Wilder, formed a company called Stunts Unlimited to represent 'Hollywood's top A-list performers … motorcycle racers, car drivers, pilots, aerial specialist and fight choreographers'. As he aged, Rondell turned to stunt co-ordination, working on films such as The Mighty Ducks (1992), Star Trek: First Contact (1996) and Batman & Robin (1997). Though he officially retired in 2000, he made his last appearance as a stuntman in a spectacular car chase in The Matrix Reloaded three years later. His son, also named Ronald, was the film's stunt co-ordinator. Rondell and his wife, Mary, whom he married in 1969, had two sons, Ronald and Reid. Both followed him into the stunt business to create one of its most famous dynasties. Reid was killed in 1985 when his helicopter crashed into a hillside near Los Angeles while filming a routine scene for a television series entitled Airwolf. He was just 22. Rondell was devastated, but told Don Bellisario, the producer: 'It goes with the territory.' Years later Rondell told the Los Angeles Times: 'You just gather it up and deal with the grief and go on with it, and try to make sure it never happens again. 'The thought never crossed my mind to quit this business. It's the job I chose. It's the thing I do best.' In the end, he died not in a blaze or a crash on a film set or a dreadful fall, but in the peace of a Missouri care home. Ronald Rondell, US stuntman, was born on February 10, 1937. He died on August 12, 2025, aged 88
