Peter Allen (musician)
Australian singer and songwriter (1944–1992)
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. 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.
The public source identifies “Peter Allen (musician)” as australian singer and songwriter (1944–1992). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Peter, Allen and musician.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1370974. VIAF identifies the subject as 54349539. The Library of Congress control number is n83145038. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1944, 1992, 2013 and 1964.
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This entry incorporates text from “Peter Allen (musician)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.