Bruce Hubbard (1952 − 12 November 1991) was an American operatic baritone. A Drama Desk and Laurence Olivier Award nominee for Best Actor, he performed on Broadway, the Metropolitan Opera, BBC television, in concert and made several recordings. He is most famous for appearing as Joe in Show Boat, and as Jake, as well as Porgy, in Porgy and Bess on Broadway, the West End, and in several major opera houses and regional theatres. He graduated from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Early life Hubbard was born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1952. He graduated from Arlington High School in 1971. In 1973, while still a student at Indiana University, where he was a music major, he helped coach actors who appeared in musicals. He returned to Indianapolis and recorded two songs on a vinyl LP. He recorded "Antiphon" from Five Mystical Songs by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and "Without a Song" by Vincent Youmans, with the Arlington High School concert choir. This custom album may have been his first formally recorded release. Career From 1978 to 1980, after Porgy and Bess, Hubbard was also seen on Broadway and subsequently in two Broadway National tours of Timbuktu!, starring the legendary Eartha Kitt, Melba Moore, Gilbert Price, and William Marshall and directed by the Tony Award winning director, costume designer and choreographer Geoffrey Holder. Hubbard first understudied, then eventually succeeded, Price in the leading role of the Mansa of Mali. He also appeared in the original company of Alan Jay Lerner and Leonard Bernstein's 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in the role of Rev. Bushrod, and performed in the first Broadway production of Scott Joplin's Treemonisha. Hubbard began appearing in productions of Show Boat as far back as 1976, including a touring production featuring Van Johnson as Cap'n Andy. However it was his performance in the acclaimed Houston Grand Opera Broadway production in 1983, with Donald O'Connor, that garnered Hubbard a nomination for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical. But perhaps the most notable production of the musical in which he appeared was not a live staged performance. The 1988 EMI 3-CD set conducted by John McGlinn, featured, for the very first time on recordings, the entire musical score, though not all the dialogue, using the original 1927 vocal arrangements and orchestrations. The album was highly acclaimed and became a best seller. It is still in print today