Singer Leon Redbone Dies at 69

Singer-songwriter Leon Redbone, who specialized in old-school vaudeville and Tin Pan Alley-style music, died Thursday, his family confirmed. No cause of death was given for the notoriously private performer. He was 69, although, in characteristically deadpan fashion, the official statement announcing his death gave his age as 127.

Although Redbone's pop-defying predilection for seemingly antiquated musical styles of the '20s and '30s made him the unlikeliest of stars, he became one anyway, appearing several times as the musical guest on "Saturday Night Live" - including two spots in the inaugural 1975-76 season alone - and landing frequent appearances with Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show" into the 1980s. Later popular successes had him singing the themes for TV's "Mr. Beledevere" and "Harry and the Hendersons," along with contributing a duet of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with Zooey Deschanel to the soundtrack of "Elf," for which he also voiced the animated character of Leon the Snowman.