Peter Allen (born Peter Richard Woolnough; 10 February 1944 – 18 June 1992) was an Australian singer-songwriter, musician, and entertainer, known for his flamboyant stage persona, energetic performances, and lavish costumes. Allen's songs were made popular by many recording artists, including Elkie Brooks, Melissa Manchester and Olivia Newton-John, including Newton-John's first chart-topping hit "I Honestly Love You", and the chart-topping and Academy Award-winning "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" by Christopher Cross.
In addition to recording many albums, Allen enjoyed a cabaret and concert career, including appearances at the Radio City Music Hall riding a camel. His patriotic song "I Still Call Australia Home" has been used extensively in advertising campaigns, and was added to the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia registry in 2013.
Allen was the first husband of Liza Minnelli. They met in October 1964, were engaged on 26 November 1964, married on 3 March 1967, formally separated on 8 April 1970, and divorced on 24 July 1974."Liza Minnelli, Husband Separate". The Toronto Daily Star, 9 April 1970, p. 27. Allen had a long-term partner, model Gregory Connell. They met in 1973 and were together until Connell's death in 1984. Allen and Connell died from AIDS-related cancer eight years apart; Allen was one of the first well-known Australians to die from AIDS. Allen remained ambiguous about his sexuality in that he did not pretend to be heterosexual after divorcing Minnelli, but never publicly came out as gay either.
In a 1991 interview with the gay newspaper New York Native, Allen said, "I was 'out' on stage years before anyone else. But I think outing is limiting. I don't feel like I should be labeled."Alexander, Yale. "Peter Allen on Judy, Liza, Legs, and the Queen." New York Native, 16 September 1991, p. 26. Despite Allen's outgoing persona, he was an intensely private man who shared little about his personal life even with those close to him. Allen did not say he had HIV/AIDS, partly in fear of alienating conservative, heterosexual fans and partly from thinking audiences would not want to see a performer they knew was sick. In 1998, a musical about his life, The Boy from Oz, debuted in Australia. It ran on Broadway and earned Hugh Jackman the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical.
Early life Allen was born Peter Richard Woolnough on 10 February 1944, to Richard John Woolnough, soldier and grocer, and his wife, Marion Bryden (née Davidson), at Prince Albert Memorial Hospital in Tenterfield, New South Wales, a small Australian country town where his grandfather, George Woolnough, worked as a saddler. He had one sibling, a younger sister named Lynne. Allen grew up in nearby Armidale and lived there from about six weeks of age until he was 14. This is also where he first learned piano and dance. Allen's performing career began when he was 11, playing the piano in the ladies' lounge of the New England Hotel in Armidale.
Richard Woolnough became a violent alcoholic after returning from World War II. In November 1958, he died by suicide by gunshot when Allen was 14. Soon after his father's suicide, Allen left school with an Intermediate Certificate and moved to Lismore with his mother and sister to live with relatives. His grandfather, George Woolnough, never understood or got over this devastating event. This tale is told in Allen's 1972 country song "Tenterfield Saddler".
In 1959, Allen went to Surfers Paradise to look for work and met Chris Bell, an English-born singer-guitarist. Assisted by Chris Bell's father, Peter, and inspired by The Everly Brothers, they formed a singing duo called the Allen Brothers. Allen began performing as "Peter Allen" around the same time. Within a year, they were based in Sydney performing on the Australian music television program Bandstand. In 1964, Mark Herron, the husband of Judy Garland, discovered The Allen Brothers while they were performing in Hong Kong. They became Judy Garland's opening act when she toured. Charmed by Allen, Judy served as a matchmaker between him and her daughter, Liza Minnelli. The Allen Brothers act broke up in the spring of 1970.
Career Allen started releasing solo recordings in 1971, but throughout his career achieved greater success through his songs being recorded by others. Allen scored his biggest success with the song "I Honestly Love You", which he co-wrote with Jeff Barry and which became a major hit in 1974 for Olivia Newton-John. Her single reached number one in the United States and Canada and won two Grammy Awards, for Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for Newton-John. Allen also co-wrote "Don't Cry Out Loud" with Carole Bayer Sager, popularized by Melissa Manchester in 1978, and "I'd Rather Leave While I'm in Love", also co-written with Bayer Sager and popularized by Rita Coolidge in 1979. One of his signature songs, "I Go to Rio", co-written with Adrienne Anderson, was popularized in America by the group Pablo Cruise.
In 1976, Allen released an album, Taught by Experts, which reached number one in Australia, along with the number one single "I Go to Rio" and the Top 10 hit of a Harry Warren standard "The More I See You". The album also included the song "Quiet Please, There's A Lady On Stage" which was recorded by many artists including Jack Jones and Dusty Springfield. Although his recording career in the US never progressed, he performed in Atlantic City and at Carnegie Hall. He had three extended sold-out engagements at New York City's Radio City Music Hall, where he became the first male dancer to dance with The Rockettes and rode a camel during "I Go to Rio". This performance was broadcast live and exclusively on subscription television service WHT The Movie Network.
Allen's most successful album was Bi-Coastal (1980), produced by David Foster and featuring the single "Fly Away", which in 1981 became his only US chart single, reaching No. 55 on the Billboard Hot 100. In addition, Allen co-wrote the Patti LaBelle hit "I Don't Go Shopping", which reached the top 30 on the R&B chart in 1980.
Allen co-wrote the song "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" with Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager and Christopher Cross, for the 1981 film Arthur. The song reached number one in the US and the songwriters won an Academy Award for Best Song. One lyric for the song, "If you get caught between the moon and New York City", was adapted from an earlier song that he and Bayer Sager co-wrote. Allen and Bayer Sager also co-wrote "You and Me (We Wanted It All)", which was recorded by Frank Sinatra for his 1980 album Trilogy. A video of Sinatra singing the song at Carnegie Hall was included as part of the Sinatra: New York live performance box set, released in late 2009.
Allen performed on Australian television for many important occasions: in front of Queen Elizabeth II in 1980 at the Sydney Opera House, before Prince Charles and Princess Diana, once in Melbourne and again in Sydney in 1981, at the opening of the Sydney Entertainment Centre in 1983, where he unveiled for the first time his Australian "Flag" shirt, and the 1980 VFL Grand Final in Melbourne. His "Up in One Concert" of 1980 was a big ratings success across the country. When Australia won the America's Cup in 1983, he flew to Perth to sing before an audience of 100,000. In 1988, he opened for Frank Sinatra at Sanctuary Cove, Queensland. In America, he appeared at the 30th anniversary of Disneyland. He returned to recording on Arista with an album entitled Not the Boy Next Door (1983). In 1990, he recorded his final album on RCA Victor, Making Every Moment Count, which featured Melissa Manchester and Harry Connick Jr. The song "Making Every Moment Count", a duet with Manchester, was co-written by Seth Swirsky, who also produced a number of songs he co-wrote with Allen, including Allen's last-released single, "Tonight You Made My Day".
One of his songs, '"I Still Call Australia Home", became popular through its use in television commercials, initially for National Panasonic and, since 1987, for Qantas.McIntyre, Paul. It's all aboard for a Qantas jumbo The Sydney Morning Herald 22 July 2004
Allen's most covered song is "I Honestly Love You".
On 23 September 2025, Barry Manilow released the Allen-penned (along with Dean Pitchford) song "Once Before I Go", a single from his forthcoming album What a Time. The song originally appeared on Allen's 1983 Album Not the Boy Next Door.
Broadway Allen made his Broadway debut on 12 January 1971, in Soon, a rock opera that opened at the Ritz Theatre and ran for three performances. He starred in his own one-man revue on Broadway at the Biltmore Theatre, Up in One: More Than a Concert (1979), which ran for 46 performances.Program for Peter Allen: Up in One at the Biltmore Theatre, New York. Playbill, 1979, p. 36. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
Allen recorded a live album called Captured Live at Carnegie Hall, in which songs from his musical Legs Diamond, were previewed. Legs Diamond opened on Broadway at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on 26 December 1988, with a book co-written by Harvey Fierstein. The musical ran for 64 performances and 72 previews. After Legs Diamond closed he returned to concert work, touring with Bernadette Peters during the summer of 1989.Cudd, Bruce."Remembering Peter Allen" , gmhc.org, 2003 Allen and Peters also performed in the 1983 Academy Award broadcast in an extended musical tribute to Irving Berlin.
Other work During his career, Allen and his music appeared in other television shows, films, and programs. In 1978, Allen appeared in a cameo role in the film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The next year, his live version of "Everything Old is New Again" was included on the soundtrack of the film All That Jazz.
Allen was also the musical guest and emcee at Miss Universe 1981.
In 1982, Allen performed as the Pirate King in a televised version of The Pirates of Penzance. He later appeared in the TV series Miami Vices second-season premiere episode, "The Prodigal Son" in 1985.
Five years later, Allen was involved in a pilot for a new Name That Tune show in 1990, and the pilot for what became CBS's short-lived prime-time game show The Hollywood Game in 1991. Allen died the day The Hollywood Game debuted; it ended up being hosted by Bob Goen due to Allen's illness.
Personal life Though flamboyant on stage, Allen was quite the opposite offstage. He once remarked, "I'm not the let's-tear-his-clothes-off type. I'm fairly quiet. The maniac only comes out when I hit the stage. I have to be a different person offstage. If I were to try to keep that up 24 hours a day, I would have a nervous breakdown."Cain, Scott. "The Maniac in Peter Allen Surfaces Only on the Stage." The Atlanta Constitution, 30 November 1980, p. 1E. Allen described his stage persona as "a much more interesting person than me. I think that's why I'm in show business, to get to be that other person.""Peter Allen; Obituary". The Times, 22 June 1992, p. 17. Allen further depicted his stage persona as "someone much taller, much handsomer, with a better hairline."Holden, Stephen. "Boy from Australia Up There with the Rockettes." The New York Times, 24 September 1982, p. c4. Although Allen described himself as "so boring" when not performing, he enjoyed swimming; wind surfing; skiing; water skiing; sailing; collecting Hawaiian shirts; reading; cooking; and growing flowers, herbs, and vegetables.Cox, Jean P. "Peter Allen: A 30s-Model Camper." Los Angeles Times, 26 May 1978, p. 1. Allen spent so much time working in his yard that he imagined his neighbors thought he was a landscape gardener.