Al Hassan, who had a 40-year-plus profession as a highway supervisor for the likes of Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gormé, Tony Danza and Jim Stafford, died April 12 in Washington, his household introduced. He was 87.
Hassan’s job took him throughout the U.S. and to Canada, Africa, Asia and Europe as he additionally supported Leif Garrett, Susan Anton and Nana Mouskouri, amongst many different entertainers.
The fifth of six kids, Albert LeRoy Hassan was born on Dec. 2, 1936, and raised within the metal city of New Fortress, Pennsylvania. After highschool, he enlisted within the U.S. Navy and served for 3 years, then graduated from the College of Maryland with bachelor’s and grasp’s levels in theater.
In school, Hassan labored with soccer coach Tom Nugent and was concerned within the effort to recruit Joe Namath, a star highschool quarterback and fellow Pennsylvanian from Beaver Falls. Namath did signal with the Terrapins however failed to attain excessive sufficient on his school board checks and wound up with Coach Bear Bryant on the College of Alabama.
Hassan and Namath, nonetheless, developed a deep friendship, and he would develop into the soccer star (and occasional actor’s) assistant, a job that introduced him to Hollywood in 1975.
Hassan linked with Scotti Brothers Data, a label run by Tony and Ben Scotti, they usually employed him to function the highway supervisor for up-and-coming nation music singer Stafford, whose “Spiders and Snakes” would attain No. 3 on the Billboard Scorching 100 in 1974.
Hassan accompanied Stafford across the nation, and a profession as a highway supervisor was born.
“Music was Al’s lifeblood, from the ancestral music of his Syrian heritage to Nineteen Fifties R&B,” his household mentioned. “His playlist ranged from Umm Kalsoum and Fairuz to Huge Joe Turner and Tom Jones, to Sinatra and Joni James, Elvis, Édith Piaf, Charles Aznavour, Peter Allen to call a number of.”
Survivors embody his brother, James; sisters-in-law Concetta and Lisa; and lots of nieces and nephews.