Actors - Jackie Gleason

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	Actors - Jackie Gleason

Jackie Gleason (b. Herbert John Gleason, February 26, 1916 in Brooklyn, New York (in the neighborhood of Bushwick); d. June 24, 1987 in Inverrary, Florida), a rotund comedian and actor, became one of America's most beloved television entertainers in the medium's coming-of-age years.

Nicknamed "The Great One" (to this day, there is debate as to who gave him the nickname; some biographers claim Orson Welles, others claim Gleason hung it upon himself . . . not an impossibility), Gleason is best remembered for his brashly versatile comedy and swift ad-libbing, particularly in that immortal comic portrait of his Chauncey Street neighbourhood in The Honeymooners, as Ralph Kramden.

Gleason repeatedly proved himself to be as fine a dramatic actor as he was a comedian in films like Rod Serling's Requiem for a Heavyweight
(1962), Soldier in the Rain
(1963) with Steve McQueen, and his Oscar-nominated performance opposite Paul Newman in The Hustler
(1961), but he never fully understood how much his comedy really meant, how utterly singular it was, and how enduring the absolute best of it has proven to be.

The early years

Gleason grew up as an only child, abandoned by his father (probably the reason he never mentioned Ralph Kramden having a father on The Honeymooners) and raised by his loving, but work-worn and troubled mother, who died when he was around 16. Gleason first gained recognition in the Broadway play Follow the Girls. He simultaneously appeared in small parts in such films as Springtime in the Rockies, Orchestra Wives (as a swing band bassist---the band itself was played by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, in Miller's final film project before joining the Army Air Force), and Navy Blues, but he did not make a mark in Hollywood in his early years.

In 1949, he played the role of Chester A. Riley on the short-lived first television version of radio comedy hit The Life of Riley. William Bendix originated the role on radio but was unable to take the television role due to film commitments (including, ironically, a film version of Riley); Gleason's version was favourably reviewed but not high in the ratings. Gleason believed he could do better, and Bendix would revive the show successfully in the early 1950s, but Gleason's nightclub act drew attention from New York City's inner circle---and the small DuMont Television Network.

"And awa-a-ay we go!"

Gleason was hired as the host of DuMont's Cavalcade of Stars and he fashioned a variety hour balanced between glitzy entertainment and his surprising comic versatility. He became one of the few major hits DuMont would enjoy from 1950 to 1952, with some thinking he had a chance to pry the "Mr. Television" title from Milton Berle. With splashy dance numbers framing the show, Gleason began to develop sketch characters that would stay with him for many years, and in 1952 he accepted a big offer to move his extravaganza---renamed The Jackie Gleason Show---to CBS, where he became the nation's number two hit behind another CBS institution, I Love Lucy.

On CBS, he amplified the glitz with splashier, Busby Berkley-inspired opening numbers by the precision-choreographed June Taylor Dancers, before an opening monologue punctuated by a cigarette in one hand and his incessant sipping from a coffee cup many suspected had something a little stronger inside. Then, he would either shuffle comically toward the wing ("A little travelin' music, Sam!" he'd call to his studio bandleader, Sammy Spear) or thrust his hand toward the wing and hail, "And awa-a-aay we go!"---the phrase became one of his trademarks.

Gleason's comic characters included the understated Poor Soul, played silently (and brilliantly) and capable of coming to grief or to surprised pleasure in the most otherwise mundane scenarios; loquacious Joe the Bartender; Rum Dum; and, the character a biographer cited as Gleason's personal favourite---Reginald Van Gleason III, a top-hatted millionaire with an exaggerated brush mustache and perpetual self-satisfied look, who was never shy about savouring the good life and never very far from liquid refreshment. (Ummmmmmmmmmm, boy! that's good booze!). In television's coming-of-age years, the Gleason array was one of the most versatile that any comic delivered.

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Actors - Jackie Gleason

The early years

"And awa-a-ay we go!"

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