John Raitt, the legendary Broadway musical star and father of singer Bonnie Raitt, died Sunday at his home in Pacific Palisades, California, from complications of pneumonia. He was 88.

Blessed with rugged good looks and a glorious baritone voice, Raitt originated the role of carnival barker Billie Bigelow, the tragic, troubled antihero of the 1945 Broadway classic Carousel.

The show's composer and lyricist, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, took full advantage of Raitt's tremendous stage persona, which they first witnessed when he played the lovestruck cowboy Curly in the road tour of their earlier Broadway hit Oklahoma! They created songs for Carousel that exploited his vocal gifts, particularly "If I Loved You" and the operatic "Soliloquy."

After appearing in three more Broadway shows that had limited success--Magdalena, Three Wishes for Jamie and Carnival in Flanders--Raitt had a second major hit as the factory super Sid Sorokin in 1954's The Pajama Game opposite Janis Paige. He went on to reprise the role opposite Doris Day in the 1957 film version.

Despite this exposure--bare-chested in pajama bottoms--he never achieved stardom in movies, but became a staple of road show and summer stock productions of the classic musicals. He toured with Mary Martin in Annie Get Your Gun (a production that was later televised), starred in Kiss Me Kate, South Pacific, Zorba and Shenandoah. He portrayed Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha and Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof.

"I don't think anybody's ever played more performances of Broadway musicals than I have. I've never stopped," he told the Los Angeles Times in 1995 when he was singing at the Hollywood Bowl to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Carousel.

That year he also released an album, John Raitt: The Broadway Legend, which included a duet with his Grammy-winning blues-rocker daughter on the Pajama Game classic "Hey, There." On the occasions when they would perform together, they usually sang her ballad "I'm Blowing Away." He was clearly thrilled by Bonnie's success. "She used to be known as John Raitt's daughter," he frequently said. "Now I'm known as Bonnie Raitt's father."

She was equally proud of her dad. In a statement Monday, Bonnie Raitt said, "His life and monumental contribution to the history of Broadway musical theater will be an inspiration always. He was the most loving, wonderful father to us kids, husband to his wife and the greatest singer I've ever heard."

For many years he took his solo act on the road as An Evening with John Raitt, and despite poor health, as recently as January sang alone and alongside Bonnie at a tribute to him at California's Pepperdine University.

"I'll sing as long as people want to hear me, and I'll be able to sing as long as I'm alive. If I can talk, I can sing," he said.

Born in Santa Ana, California, Raitt first sang at the YMCA camp run by his father, and in the chorus of musicals at his Fullerton Union high school.

A 6-foot-2 track athlete, who set state records in javelin, shotput and discus, he earned a scholarship to USC, but then transferred to the University of Redlands where he pursued his interest in singing. Despite little formal training he was good enough to earn the leads in local productions of the operas Carmen and The Barber of Seville.

He was signed as a contract player by MGM, but the studio failed to tap his talent. In 1944 he sold his possessions and took a train to New York to try out to replace Alfred Drake as Curly in Oklahoma! At his audition he warmed up by singing Figaro's aria from The Barber of Seville. It didn't win him the job, but his skill stuck in the memory of Rodgers and Hammerstein, who were in the process of creating Carousel. So, after touring as Curly, he ended up on Broadway as Bigelow, winning the Best Actor in a Musical award from the New York Drama Critics.

Raitt never won a competitive Grammy, but he was enshrined in the New York Theater Hall of Fame in 1993 and received a lifetime achievement award from the Los Angeles Critics Circle in 1998.

In addition to his daughter, Raitt is survived by two sons, Steven and David, two stepdaughters, six grandchildren and his third wife, Rosemary, who had been his high school sweetheart.