Keith Wegeman

In 1944, Keith Richard Wegeman moved with his family to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, then later to Sun Valley, Idaho. He became, like his father and brother, an accomplished skier. He attended the University of Denver and was on the 1950 national championship's ski team there. He tied for 12th place in the individual large hill competition at the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo. After graduating, Wegeman entered the US Army and became an instructor in the Mountain and Cold Weather Training Company in Fort Carson, Colorado. By the middle 1950's, he had became a born-again Christian and moved to Hollywood, attending Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. In 1956, he hosted "Skit Tips", a ski instruction TV show in Los Angeles and was technical advisor to the 1960 US Olympic Team Committee. In 1961, he was hired by the Leo Burnette Advertising to be the original Jolly Green Giant for the then new frozen vegetable TV ad campaign. He married budding actress Judy Lang in 1959, and their daughter, Kelly, grew up to become an actress as well. Wegeman, his father Al, and brother Paul, are all members of the Colorado Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame. Wegeman died young of colon cancer, the same disease that took his father's life.