Yeah, yeah, it's been a while. To make up for my absence, I present to you beloved bass-baritone George London, who was born in Canada of a Russian Jewish family and grew up in California. He was the first North American to sing the role of Boris Godunov in Moscow, and that at the height of the Cold War in 1960.
This is London's 1956-ish performance of the Te Deum from Tosca (embedding disabled). Ignore the fact that he's singing out of one side of the mouth. His Wikipedia bio-blurb mentions that he suffered from partial paralysis at this point, but is unclear about the circumstances.
This is "Le Veau d'Or" from Faust (audio only so why embed the YouTube clip?).
And a video clip--a concert (television only?) performance of the death scene from Boris Godunov:
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