American comedy

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Vaudeville performer table

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x Bud Abbott
William Alexander “Bud” Abbott (October 2, 1895 – April 24, 1974) was an American actor, producer and comedian. He is best remembered as the straight man of the comedy team of Abbott and Costello, with Lou Costello. Abbott was born in Asbury Park,...
x Jack Albertson Grandpa Joe as portrayed in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)
Jack Albertson (June 16, 1907 – November 25, 1981) was an American character actor dating to vaudeville. A comedian, dancer, singer, and musician, Albertson is perhaps best known for his roles as Manny Rosen in The Poseidon Adventure and Grandpa Joe...
x Robert Alda
Robert Alda (February 26, 1914 – May 3, 1986), born Alfonso Giuseppe Giovanni Roberto D'Abruzzo, was an American actor. He was the father of actor Alan Alda. Alda, an Italian American, was born in New York City, New York, the son of Frances (née...
x Fred Allen
Fred Allen (May 31, 1894 – March 17, 1956), born John Florence Sullivan, was an American comedian whose absurdist, pointed radio show (1934–1949) made him one of the most popular and forward-looking humorists in the so-called classic era of American...
x Gracie Allen GracieAllen
Grace Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen (July 26, 1895 – August 27, 1964), better known as Gracie Allen, was an American comedienne who became internationally famous as the zany partner and comic foil of husband George Burns. For contributions to the...
x Don Ameche Bicker
Don Ameche (May 31, 1908 – December 6, 1993) was an American actor. Ameche was born Dominic Felix Amici in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the son of Barbara, who was of Irish and German descent, and Felix Ameche, an immigrant from Italy whose original surname...
x Morey Amsterdam Morey Amsterdam on Match Game '73
Morey Amsterdam (December 14, 1908 – October 27, 1996) was a veteran American television actor and comedian, renowned for his large, ready supply of jokes. He is probably best known for his role as Buddy Sorrell on The Dick Van Dyke Show in the...
x Eddie Anderson Eddie Anderson
Edmund Lincoln Anderson (September 18, 1905 – February 28, 1977), often known as Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, was an American comic actor who became famous playing "Rochester van Jones" (usually known simply as "Rochester"), the valet to Jack Benny's...
x Roscoe Arbuckle Arbuckle
Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle (March 24, 1887 – June 29, 1933) was an American silent film comedian, director, and screenwriter. Starting at the Selig Polyscope Company he eventually moved to Keystone Studios where he worked with Mabel Normand...
x Jack Benny
Jack Benny (February 14, 1894 – December 26, 1974), born Benjamin Kubelsky, was an American comedian, vaudevillian, and actor for radio, television, and film. Widely recognized as one of the leading American entertainers of the 20th century, Benny...
x Edgar Bergen Sam Berman's caricature of Charlie McCarthy and Edgar Bergen for 1947 NBC promotion book
Edgar John Bergen (February 16, 1903 – September 30, 1978) was an American actor and radio performer, best known as a ventriloquist. Bergen was born Edgar John Bergren in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Swedish immigrants Nilla Svensdotter (née Osberg...
x Milton Berle Publicity shot of Berle
Milton Berle (July 12, 1908 – March 27, 2002) was an Emmy-winning American comedian and actor. As the manic host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater (1948–55), he was the first major star of television and as such became known as Uncle Miltie and Mr....
x Ray Bolger
Ray Bolger (January 10, 1904 – January 15, 1987), born Raymond Wallace Bulcao, was an American entertainer of stage and screen, best known for his portrayal of the Scarecrow and Kansas farmworker Hunk in the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz. Bolger spent...
x Walter Brennan
Walter Brennan (July 25, 1894 – September 21, 1974) was a three-time Academy Award winning American actor. He is remembered as one of the premier character actors in motion picture history. Born in Lynn, Massachusetts less than two miles from his...
x George Burns
George Burns (January 20, 1896 – March 9, 1996), born Nathan Birnbaum, was an American comedian, actor, and writer. His career spanned vaudeville, film, radio, and television, with and without his wife, Gracie Allen. His arched eyebrow and cigar...
x Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor (January 31 1892 – October 10 1964) was an American comedian, singer, actor, and songwriter. Familiar to Broadway, radio and early television audiences, this "Apostle of Pep" was regarded almost as a family member by millions because...
x Charlie Chaplin Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin Studios is a motion picture studio built in 1917 by silent film star Charlie Chaplin just south of the southeast corner of La Brea and Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. After being sold by Chaplin in 1953, the...
x Lou Costello
Lou Costello (March 6, 1906 – March 3, 1959) was an American actor and comedian best known as half of the comedy team of Abbott and Costello, with Bud Abbott. Costello was famous for his bumbling, chubby, clean-cut image that has appealed to many...
x Sammy Davis, Jr.
Samuel George “Sammy” Davis, Jr. (December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990) was an Emmy Award-winning, Golden Globe-nominated and Tony Award-nominated American actor, comedian, singer, dancer, impressionist and musician, who remains known for being a member...
x Sammy Davis, Sr.  
Sammy Davis, Sr. (December 12, 1900 – May 21, 1988) was an American dancer and the father of Sammy Davis, Jr.. Sammy Davis, Sr. was born in Wilmington, North Carolina. He and his wife Elvera Sanchez were both vaudeville dancers. They split up when...
x Jimmy Durante Jimmy Durante
James Francis “Jimmy” Durante (February 10, 1893 – January 29, 1980) was an American singer and movie icon, pianist, comedian and actor, whose distinctive gravel delivery, comic language butchery, jazz-influenced songs, and large nose – his frequent...
x Buddy Ebsen
Buddy Ebsen (April 2, 1908 – July 6, 2003) was an American character actor and dancer. A performer for seven decades, he had starring roles as Jed Clampett in the popular 1960s television series, The Beverly Hillbillies and as the title character in...
x W. C. Fields W. C. Fields apocryphal epitaph, "On the whole, I would rather be in Philadelphia" is a backhanded compliment
W. C. Fields (January 29, 1880 – December 25, 1946) was an American comedian, actor and juggler. Fields created one of the great American comic personas of the first half of the 20th century: a misanthropic and hard-drinking egotist who remained a...
x Larry Fine
Larry Fine (October 5, 1902 – January 24, 1975) was an American comedian and actor, who is best-known as a member of the comedy act The Three Stooges. Fine was born to a Jewish family as Andrew Louis Feinberg in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the...
x Eddie Foy Eddie Foy Park at the corner of Weyman Avenue and Pelham Road in New Rochelle, NY
Eddie Foy, Sr. (born Edwin Fitzgerald March 9, 1856, in Greenwich Village, New York City; died February 16, 1928, Kansas City, Missouri), was an actor, comedian, dancer and vaudevillian. Foy's parents, Richard and Mary Fitzgerald immigrated to the...
x Oliver Hardy
Oliver Hardy (born Norvell Hardy; January 18, 1892 – August 7, 1957) was an American comic actor famous as one half of Laurel and Hardy, the classic double act that began in the era of silent films and lasted over 31 years, from 1926 to 1957. Hardy...
x Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG (born Leslie Townes Hope, May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003), was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US...
x Curly Howard
Jerome Lester Horwitz better know by his stage name Curly Howard (October 22, 1903 – January 18, 1952) was an American comedian and vaudevillian, best known as a member of the American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges, along with his older...
x Moe Howard
Moe Howard (June 19, 1897 – May 4, 1975) was an American comedian, best known as the leader of the Three Stooges, the slapstick comedy team who starred in motion pictures and television for four decades. His distinctive hairstyle came about when he...
x Samuel Howard
Shemp Howard (March 4, 1895 – November 22, 1955) was an American comedian best known as a part of the Three Stooges comedy team. Born Samuel Horwitz, he was called "Shemp" because "Sam" came out that way in his mother's thick Lithuanian accent. He...
x George Jessel GeorgeJesselStageDoorCanteen
George Jessel (3 April 1898 – 23 May 1981) was an American actor, singer, songwriter, and Academy Award-winning movie producer. He was famous in his lifetime as a multitalented comedic entertainer, achieving a level of recognition that transcended...
x Danny Kaye Kaye entertaining U.S. troops at Sasebo, Japan, 25 Oct 1945
Danny Kaye (January 18, 1913 – March 3, 1987) was an American award-winning actor, singer and comedian. Born David Daniel Kaminsky to Jewish Ukrainian immigrants in Brooklyn, Kaye became one of the world's best-known comedians. He spent his early...
x Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was a prominent American comic actor and filmmaker. Best known for his silent films, his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the...
x Walter Kelly  
Walter C. Kelly (29 October 1873 in Mineville, New York - 6 January 1939 in Philadelphia, PA) was a Vaudeville comedian. He was the uncle of actress Grace Kelly (Princess of Monaco). He appeared in several Broadway productions and in several movies....
x Stan Laurel
Stan Laurel (born Arthur Stanley Jefferson; June 16, 1890 – February 23, 1965) was a British comic actor, writer and director, famous as the first half of the comedy double-act Laurel and Hardy, whose career stretched from the silent films of the...
x Bert Lahr Bert Lahr in the 1930s
Bert Lahr (August 13, 1895 – December 4, 1967) was an American of German-Jewish heritage Tony Award-winning comic actor and vaudeville comedian. Born Irving Lahrheim in New York City, Lahr is best remembered today for his role as the Cowardly Lion...
x Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis (born March 16, 1926) is an American comedian, actor, film producer, writer, director and singer. He is best-known for his slapstick humor on stage, screen, television and radio, his singing ability in a string of music album recordings...
x Leonard Marx
Leonard "Chico" Marx (March 22, 1887 – October 11, 1961) was the eldest of the Marx Brothers. He was originally nicknamed Chicko for his reputation as a ladies' man, or a "chicken chaser" in the popular slang of the day. A typesetter accidentally...
x Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of which he was the third-born. He also had a successful...
x Gummo Marx Gravesite of Gummo Marx
Milton "Gummo" Marx (October 23 1893 - April 21 1977) was the fourth-born of the Marx Brothers. Born in New York City, he worked with his brothers on the vaudeville circuit, but left acting when he was drafted into the U.S. Army during World War I,...
x Harpo Marx
Arthur Adolph "Harpo" Marx (November 23, 1888 – September 28, 1964), born Adolph Arthur Marx, was the second-born of the Marx Brothers and a unique comic performer whose style was influenced by clown and pantomime traditions. He was well known by...
x Zeppo Marx Groucho, Gummo, Minnie (mother), Zeppo, Frenchy (father), Chico and Harpo. About the time of their act "Fun in Hi Skule" 1913
Herbert Manfred "Zeppo" Marx (February 25, 1901 – November 30, 1979) was the youngest of the five Marx Brothers. He appeared in the first five Marx Brothers films, but then left the act for a career as a theatrical agent. There are different...
x Sam Marx Sam Frenchie Marx
Samuel Marx, born Simon Marrix (1861 – May 10, 1933), was the husband of Minnie Marx, and father of the Marx Brothers. He was born in Alsace, (now in France) and he died on May 10, 1933 in Los Angeles, California. He met Minnie in New York where he...
x Donald O'Connor Donald
Donald David Dixon Ronald O’Connor (August 28, 1925 – September 27, 2003) was an American dancer, singer, and actor who came to fame in a series of movies in which he co-starred alternately with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, and Francis the Talking Mule....
x Will Rogers Will Rogers's Western wear would inspire the clothing of the singing cowboys of the 1940s
William Penn Adair “Will” Rogers (November 4, 1879 – August 15, 1935) was a Cherokee-American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer and actor. He was the father of U.S. Congressman and WWII Veteran Will Rogers, Jr....
x Mickey Rooney Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule, Jr. on September 23, 1920) is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. During his career he has won multiple awards, including an Academy...
x Phil Silvers Phil Silvers
Phil Silvers (May 11, 1911 – November 1, 1985) was an American entertainer and comedy actor. He is best known for starring in The Phil Silvers Show, a 1950s sitcom set on a U.S. Army post in which he played Sergeant Bilko. Born Philip Silversmith in...
x Mae West
Mae West (August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980) was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter, and sex symbol. Known for her bawdy double entendres, West made a name for herself in Vaudeville and on the stage in New York before moving to...
x Ed Wynn EdWynnStageDoorCanteen
Ed Wynn (November 9 1886 - June 19 1966) was a popular American comedian and actor noted for his Perfect Fool comedy character, his pioneering radio show of the 1930s, and his later career as a dramatic actor. Born Isaiah Edwin Leopold in...
x Henny Youngman Henny Youngman performing at the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon
Henry "Henny" Youngman (March 16, 1906 – February 24, 1998) was a British-born comedian and violinist famous for "one-liners," short, simple jokes usually delivered rapid-fire. His best known (and oft misattributed) one-liner was "Take my wife...
x Jan Murray  
Jan Murray (October 4, 1916 - July 2, 2006) was an American stand-up comedian and actor who made his name on the Borscht Belt. Murray was born Murray Janofsky in The Bronx, New York City. His interest in comedy began during his childhood, when he...
x Joe E. Lewis U1302291INP
Joe E. Lewis (January 12, 1902 – 4 June 1971), born Joseph Klewan in New York City, was an American comedian and singer. In 1927, Lewis refused the request of Jack "Machine Gun" McGurn (an Al Capone lieutenant) to renew a contract that would have...
x Chic Johnson  
Chic Johnson (15 March 1891 – Chicago, Illinois – 28 February 1962, born Harold Ogden Johnson) was the barrel-chested half of the Swedish-American comedy team of Olsen and Johnson, known for his strangely infectious, high-pitched laugh. He broke...
x Ole Olsen Early Theatrical Poster for Ole Olsen
John Siguard "Ole" Olsen (6 November 1892 – 26 January 1963) was an American vaudevillian and comedian. Born in Peru, Indiana, he graduated from Northwestern University in 1912 with a degree in music and hit the Vaudeville circuit. In 1914 he met...
x Cary Grant
Archibald Alec Leach (January 18, 1904 – November 29, 1986), better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was a British-born American actor. With his distinctive yet not quite placeable accent, he was noted as perhaps the foremost exemplar of the...