LOS ANGELES -- Acclaimed tenor Jerry Hadley, once considered one of America's most versatile and important opera singers, died yesterday at St. Francis Hospital and Health Centers in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., according to family spokeswoman Celia P. Novo. He was 55.

Mr. Hadley was found unconscious July 10 on the floor of his bedroom in his upstate New York home with what police said was a self-inflicted wound to his head from an air rifle.